‘Paper’ bottle maker backed by Diageo secures £20m in fresh funding round
A sustainable packaging business backed by Diageo, is gearing up for a new funding round in efforts to deliver a commercial product line.
Pulpex said it has secured financing from CMPC, a Chilean pulp and paper company, to enable the production and supply of over 2bn paper bottles to consumer brands worldwide by 2028.
Sources told Sky News, which first broke the news, that the the Series C funding will be between £20-25m pounds.
Pulpex, delivered the first Johnnie Walker whisky bottle made entirely from paper products.
The group, which operates from a facility in Cambridgeshire, was launched in 2020 as a joint venture between Diageo and Pilot Line, a venture management company.
“Our technology will enable and accelerate the availability of sustainable fibre packaging for our major brand customers and their packaging suppliers, in turn enabling them to meet consumer demand for more sustainable packaging and helping them to meet their carbon reduction goals for 2030,” Scott Winston, Pulpex chief executive, said.
Felipe Alcalde, chief competitiveness and innovation officer, CMPC added: “We are very excited to be partnering with Pulpex and have an enthusiastic, dedicated team of technical, strategic and commercial experts to support Pulpex’s growth to industrial scale, maximising the many synergies to develop more sustainable products based on our pulp.
“This is a very important step for CMPC to invest in a company with great potential such as Pulpex, while allowing us to explore new opportunities for our packaging business.”