PaperFoam, the Barneveld maker of compostable starch-based packaging, has secured a €2m loan from Invest International. Part of the money goes to its factory in the Czech Republic and the rest to working capital at its plants in Malaysia and the United States.
Credit: this report is based on a story first published by IO+. Read the original at ioplus.nl.
According to IO+, Dutch packaging company PaperFoam has secured €2m, and the money comes as a loan. The lender is Invest International, the Dutch government-backed organisation that finances companies growing beyond the Netherlands.
The company is based in Barneveld. It produces plant-based trays and inserts that replace the plastic and polystyrene parts used to hold products such as phones, perfume bottles and medical devices inside their boxes.
Deal detail
The instrument is a loan, and the use of funds is split in two. One part will expand PaperFoam's factory in the Czech Republic. The other will add working capital at its plants in Malaysia and the United States.
The relationship between the two parties is not new. Invest International helped finance PaperFoam's first move into the Czech Republic in 2020, IO+ reports.
Jeroen Plag, chief investment officer at Invest International, said the company "has traveled a difficult path" from promising technology to a business able to grow internationally. He said the new loan backs the next phase of growth at a time when traditional financiers still regard the company as too risky. Invest International says it steps in where regular lenders still hesitate.
CEO Willem Derkman said building an alternative to traditional packaging takes time, investment and long-term partners. He said the funding will help PaperFoam add production capacity and serve new markets and customers.
The product
PaperFoam mixes industrial starch, natural fibres, water and a premix of its own into a paste. The paste is injected into custom aluminium moulds and baked at around 204°C.
According to the company, its packaging is up to 40% lighter than traditional alternatives and can cut the carbon footprint of packaging by up to 90%. It is certified home compostable by TÜV and can also go in the paper recycling bin, a claim validated by UL. Customers named in the report include beauty group Puig, Dutch retailer HEMA and medical technology company Medtronic.
What comes next
The expansion also brings work to other Dutch suppliers. New production machinery is coming from Kuyer Metaal in Nijkerk and Shuffle-Mix in Barneveld.
Plag also said that helping green manufacturers scale up keeps innovation in the Netherlands. As IO+ puts it, PaperFoam is betting that brands looking to cut plastic will want packaging that ends up on the compost heap rather than in landfill.
Original source: IO+, "PaperFoam lands €2 million to grow its compostable packaging"
