Samsara Eco secures $54M in Series A

Enviro-tech start-up Samsara Eco has secured $54 million in its Series A.

Paul Riley, founder and CEO, Samsara Eco

New investors include Breakthrough Victoria, Temasek, Assembly Climate Capital, DCVC, INP Capital, alongside returning investors Main Sequence, W23, and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) Innovation fund.

The organisation launched last year in partnership with Australian National University (ANU) with a new solution to plastic recycling. The technology uses enzymes to break down plastics to its core molecules which can then be used to create brand new plastics, infinitely.

According to Samsara founder and CEO Paul Riley, “Plastic is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and provides enormous utility because of its durability, flexibility and strength. Yet, plastic is an environmental disaster, with almost every piece of the 9 billion tonnes ever made still on the planet.

“You can’t solve the climate crisis unless you solve the plastics crisis. Unlike other alternative recycling practices, our process is economical, with a low carbon footprint and allows for the effective recycling of challenging plastics including coloured, multi-layered or mixed plastics and textiles. Our technology means we have enough plastic in the world already and with our technology you never need to produce plastic from fossil fuels again.”

The funds raised will be directed to grow Samsara’s engineering team as well as to fund its first commercial facility.

“Access to this funding will enable us to accelerate the capabilities of infinite recycling and scale our technology which breaks down plastics in minutes, not centuries,” said Riley.

Samsara’s roadmap states that the organisation will recycle 1.5M tonnes of plastic per annum by 2030.

According to Main Sequence Partner, Phil Morle, “Samsara is a powerful example of how deep tech can be used to solve real-world problems. Its breakthrough technology based on science has the potential to end our reliance on fossil fuels for plastic creation, and with it, bring us one step closer to ending the plastic pollution crisis we currently face. These are exactly the type of ideas and start-ups we want to help grow and scale.”

Samsara is looking to expand internationally into Europe and the United States.