Cleantech Startup from London Raises £2.55m to Bring Down Dependency on Single-Use Packaging
Again, a cleantech startup based in London has raised a £2.55m pre-seed investment led by Eka Ventures. The proceeds will help develop a system for cleaning packaging for refill and reuse.
Again developed a compact shipping container-sized CleanCell solution, which uses 76 per cent less water and 90 per cent less energy than conventional recycling practices. It can process and clean thousands of packaging units every month, ready for refill and reuse.
The company aims to power brands to reuse their packaging cheaper than buying single-use packaging. The cleaning technology system has already matched the price of single-use packaging for small brands.
Resources & waste minister Jo Churchill said: “It is encouraging to see businesses working together on this exciting new pilot to make reuse more affordable, and I look forward to hearing the results.
"Through our new Environment Act we will tackle the nation’s ‘throwaway culture’ - incentivising manufacturers to produce more recyclable packaging, and putting in place consistent recycling collections for households and businesses.”
Matt Kennedy, founder and CEO of Again, added: “Reusable packaging is the future, but today it is prohibitively expensive for brands. We are in the early stages of building a circular economy, and we see our role being the infrastructure that underpins the packaging aspect of this on a mass scale.
“This can only be done with buy-in from across the value chain and we are excited to be working in partnership with renowned brands like Budweiser Brewing Group and Diageo, alongside waste management companies, like Biffa and SWRnewstar, to deliver a reusable packaging solution that can enable the shift of billions of units of packaging to reuse in an economically viable way.”
