Seaweed Packaging: Notpla Closes £20M Series A Round to Fuel US Expansion & Sell 100 Million Plastic-Free Units

UK seaweed packaging startup Notpla has closed a £20M ($26.8M) Series A round to expand to the US and replace 100 million single-use plastic items by 2026.

Notpla, the London-based maker of sustainable packaging, has snapped up £20M (£26.8M) in a Series A extension round, doubling its initial £10M raise in 2021.

The round was led by United Bankers and featured Temasek Trust’s Catalytic Capital for Climate & Health (C3H), as well as existing investors Horizons Ventures and Astanor. EIT Food’s AgriFoodInvest, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Kibo Invest, Radicle Impact, and Ocean Born Foundation also participated, among others.

The fresh capital will help accelerate the Earthshot Prize winner’s expansion to the US, expand its portfolio, and scale up manufacturing, with a goal of selling 100 million units of its seaweed-based packaging products in the next two years.

“Our investors recognise the commercial potential of our technology and our unique solutions. This funding allows us to accelerate our growth and continue leading the market in sustainable innovation,” said Notpla co-CEO Pierre Paslier, who founded the company with fellow CEO Rodrigo García González a decade ago.

“This round not only validates our approach but also positions us to capitalise on the growing demand for truly plastic-free packaging solutions in global markets, especially as we look towards expansion into the US,” added González.

How Notpla uses seaweed to tackle plastic pollution

Notpla is solving one of the planet’s biggest issues: plastic waste. Derived from petroleum, plastics take between 20 and 500 years to break down, and are responsible for 3.4% of global emissions (a share set to double by 2060). We’re putting so much plastic waste in the ocean, it is expected to outweigh fish in our waters by mid-century.

There are over 3,200 toxic substances present in plastic, and microplastics in our waterways end up in our food system, harming human health. Meanwhile, more than 90% of plastic pollution comes from single-use products.

Notpla’s alternatives are made by extracting natural compounds from seaweed and plants without chemical modifications, and they can be disposed of in three ways. They’re 100% recyclable, industrially compostable, as well as home-compostable, breaking down in four to six weeks.

The company’s flagship product is Ooho, an edible packaging solution for liquids and gels. This, alongside its coating and film innovations (used in food packaging boxes), is produced with the gelatinous part of seaweed (which makes up 20% of the plant). When this is being extracted, it leaves behind fibres and biomass that can be turned into zero-waste paper and rigid materials.

The latter is used to make biodegradable disposable cutlery, with Notpla launching an ice cream spoon earlier this year. It is additionally developing laundry sachets, energy gel pods, and sachets for herbs, seasonings, and bath oils.

And while conventional containers and bioplastic alternatives can contain petrol-based coatings that “stick around forever” and release harmful toxins, the startup leverages the seaweed’s components to provide the grease and moisture resistance needed by food boxes and bypass fossil-fuel-derived polymers.

“Our goal has always been to create products and materials that can make a real difference,” González said. “From our early days producing Ooho in our student kitchen, to seeing runners consume them in their thousands at the London Marathon, all the way through to today where we’re making millions of real, credible packaging solutions for industries – it’s just huge.”

Eco packaging on the up as regulators tighten single-use plastic stance

Notpla’s increasing popularity can perhaps be summed up by the fact that at the end of 2023, it had replaced 7.3 million pieces of single-use plastic in 10 countries across Europe – but it has more than doubled that to 16 million this year already.

This is thanks to its growing list of partnerships, including the likes of catering giant Compass Group, sporting goods retailer Decathlon, and food delivery company Just Eat Takeaway.com (which has used the packaging at UEFA Champions League matches). The football connection is strong – its innovations are being used at 50 stadiums across the UK, including Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur – while it has also teamed up with London concert venue the O2 Arena.

Last year, Notpla’s seaweed packaging became the first material to be recognised as plastic-free under the EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive, following a nine-month verification by the Dutch government (which has imposed a 25-cent levy on food delivery and takeaway packaging).

The EU itself is set to ban all single-use plastic by the end of the decade. And certain single-use plastics have been banned in the UK and US states like California as well. Notpla’s planned move stateside comes weeks after the US indicated it will support the UN’s global plastics treaty to impose limits on plastic production.

These legislative measures have made alternatives to single-use plastics more and more important. Notpla’s seaweed-based solutions represent up to 70% lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional plastic, helping avoid 250 tonnes of emissions in 2023. Others innovating with seaweed packaging include California’s Sway, Scottish startup Oceanium, Oslo-based B’Zeos, and New York’s Loliware.

Sustainable packaging startups have also attracted investors in droves. These companies raised $221M in Europe last year, an all-time high that was double the funding in 2022. Notpla’s Series A extension is among the largest rounds this year, alongside Paques Biomaterials’s €14M ($15.7M) raise in January.

Notpla’s strong customer traction and product innovation position them well for further business expansion, as they realise even more impact and reduce the environmental harm caused by single-use plastics,” said Ryan Tan, director of Temasek Trust’s C3H fund.