Circulate Capital Expects $90M in Funding to Combat Ocean Plastic

Circulate Capital announced it expects to receive $90 million in funding for its strategy to combat ocean plastic from several of the world’s leading consumer packaged goods and chemical companies, including PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company. Circulate Capital stated it anticipates formalizing definitive agreements with these parties by early 2019.

Circulate Capital, its expected founding investors and the Ocean Conservancy will hold a joint event during the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia, on October 29, where they will provide an overview of Circulate Capital’s investment model, which is designed to create the lasting systems change needed to address the ocean plastic crisis.

Circulate Capital aims to attract the billions of dollars of institutional investment capital that are needed to scale integrated recycling and waste management companies and infrastructure across South and Southeast Asia, regions identified as contributing disproportionately to ocean plastic pollution primarily because they lack the critical waste infrastructure to manage the problem. The company’s investment model seeks to mobilize institutional investment capital through financial structures that blend concessionary and philanthropic funds with market rate investment capital with a view to mitigating risk and demonstrating that investment in the resource recovery sector can ultimately provide attractive financial returns.

“We seek to catalyze systems change by removing capital as a barrier to critical waste and recycling infrastructure development, and today’s funding announcement is a huge step toward achieving this goal,” said Rob Kaplan, founder and CEO of Circulate Capital, in a statement. “Institutional investors are unwilling to allocate to this sector because of a 'missing middle'—proven entities that demonstrate a track record of profitability and offer a robust pipeline of investment prospects. By partnering with the world’s leading corporations, many of which are direct competitors, we can leverage their patient capital and technical know-how to build on-ramps for institutional capital at scale over the longer term.”