Earthodic Secures $1.85M in Pre-Seed Funding to Revolutionise Sustainable Coatings
- Published: June 02, 2023
Earthodic, an innovator in the sustainable coatings market, has announced the completion of an oversubscribed $1.85M pre-seed round. The company’s innovative bio-based coating solution, PaperbarcTM, provides paper and packaging with enhanced water resistance and strength without compromising the ability to be recycled or composted at end-of-life*, with the necessary infrastructure in place. This is often a challenge for many of the current wax or plastic-coated packaging products on the market.
Co-led by Tenacious Ventures and Investible, the round attracted investment from a number of high-profile investors including Twynam Group and USA-based Closed Loop Partners. The funds raised will be used to accelerate the growth of the company, with a particular focus on technology scale up, increasing sales and marketing efforts, and expanding the company’s intellectual property portfolio.
The four co-founders Albert Tietz, Fiona Donaghey, Anthony Musumeci and Melissa Mail met over the course of the last decade and have worked together on a number of different projects, including early stage commercialization initiatives, startup investment opportunities and materials consulting projects.
“We are very excited to be supporting the team at Earthodic. Packaging in the agricultural and food value chain is a massive, visible sustainability challenge and we look forward to seeing the impact their solution will make,” said Sarah Nolet, Managing Partner at Tenacious Ventures.
Following completion of the round, Earthodic has been working to scale up the production of PaperbarcTM. The company recently achieved significant milestone with the successful completion of a commercial scale manufacture run in the USA. PaperbarcTM also recently received 100 percent USDA Biobased Product Label certification and ability to participate in the USDA Biopreferred Program. These milestones allow Earthodic to offer commercial quantities to packaging manufacturers looking to deliver a 100 percent biobased coating to end-users and aid in reaching ESG targets. In particular, PaperbarcTM is well suited to bulk and secondary packaging applications in the agricultural and food supply chain that require water resistance and enduring structural integrity (i.e., replacing wax boxes for fruit, vegetables and seafood that are going in and out of cold rooms).
"I am grateful for the incredible support of our investors, who share our unwavering passion for sustainability and circularity, and wholeheartedly believe in our mission to create a better future for all” said Anthony Musumeci, co-founder of Earthodic. “We are excited about the early success we’ve achieved, and cannot wait to explore future opportunities to scale up our technology and continue creating a positive impact.”
“The Earthodic team brings a strong blend of research and commercial acumen, manufacturing and sustainable materials expertise perfectly aligned with the problems they are addressing. We were impressed with the incredible persistence they’ve shown to date building this technology and look forward to supporting their next phase,” said Investible Investment Manager Ben Lindsay.
Earthodic is now focused on expanding its commercial engagements with organisations seeking more sustainable solutions for wax and plastic-coated paper packaging.
*Certifications pending
For more information, visit www.earthodic.com.
