As individuals, we dedicate a big chunk of our lives towards few selected pursuits. These pursuits can vary quite heavily in their nature, thus helping us diversify over time and become more complete. Now, when you experience something of that sort on a personal level, it also tends to spill across a bigger picture. Such a dynamic then leads you into a reality where, all of a sudden, your boundaries are expanded, and if we contextualize this through an example, we cannot pick anything more fitting than technology. In fact, technology wasn’t done just after widening our horizons, but it also gave us the means to utilize every new possibility. Equipped with a never-seen-before advanced setup, the world would go on to make some huge strides over the next few years. However, despite the serious progression, we’ll forget to give certain areas their due attention. For instance, while we were reveling in tech-driven upgrades, we somehow failed to notice how our actions were negatively impacting our environment. As a result, this problem got so big that soon enough we were doubtful about the very future of human life. Fortunately, though, we are now finally witnessing a shift in focus, and it is put on display rather effectively by a recently-concluded funding round.
Novoloop, a US based startup, has officially raised $11 million in Series A financing. Led by Envisioning Partners, the round saw close participation from the likes of Valo Ventures, Bemis Associates, SOSV, Mistletoe, and TIME Ventures. According to certain reports, the funding will be used to commercialize company’s in-house technology called ATOD™ (Accelerated Thermal Oxidative Decomposition). ATOD basically break down polyethylene into chemical building blocks that come with every bit of potential to become a high-value product. It sounds exceedingly simple, but the approach does solve a major environmental concern. For years, we have struggled to upcycle polyethylene plastic waste, thus triggering overwhelmingly dangerous pollution levels. So, if Novoloop can achieve even some ground-level success, it will really alter our destructive trajectory.
“Polyethylene plastic is the most common packaging used but is extremely hard to chemically change and break apart and turn into useful things. We cracked this by essentially adopting a new chemical approach to oxidize this polyethylene,” said Miranda Wang, co-founder and CEO of Novoloop.
The company’s is set to make its commercial debut through a product named Oistre™, which is a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) used in footwear, apparel, sporting goods, automotive and electronics. As per shared specifications, it will operate within a carbon footprint that is 46% smaller than, let’s say, a conventional TPU.