Circulate Capital Ocean Fund, a fund focussed on addressing plastic crisis in India and Southeast Asia, has raised capital from foods and beverage conglomerate Mondelēz International, after drawing interest from the likes of PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Co last year.
Mondelēz International said in a statement that the investment would address the problem of multilayered packaging-waste and recycling efforts in India.
"Our focus is to support the development of a circular pack economy and we want to realize this ambition by using less packaging," said Deepak Iyer, president-India, Mondelēz International.
The investment was made from MondelÄ“z International’s Sustainable Futures impact investing platform
Circulate Capital Ocean Fund, which is managed by Singapore-based investment management company Circulate Capital, has a corpus of $106 million. PepsiCo came in as the first Limited Partner (LPs), or investor, in the fund. Other LPs include companies such as The Coca-Cola Co, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone and CHANEL.
The fund provides financing to waste management, recycling and circular economy start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises across India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, the media statement said.
The fund made its debut deal in India by betting on plastic recycling firm, Lucro Plastecycle Pvt Ltd in April last year.
Subsequently, the fund also invested in the Series C funding round of Nepra Resources Management.
It followed up with four more investments in Srichakra Polyplast India Pvt Ltd, Rapidue Technologies Pvt Ltd, Deeya Panel Products Pvt Ltd, and Dalmia Polypro Industries Pvt Ltd.
Some waste management firms in India have attracted funding from investors in the past few years. They include investments in Singapore-based waste management company Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Pte Ltd from Asian financial services group Nomura, and Saahas from Dutch impact investor C4D Partners.
In a significant deal in 2018, KKR & Co. agreed to acquire a 60% stake in environmental services provider Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd for about $530 million (Rs 3,667 crore).