It also announced a new €12.5 million regional grant, accelerating its progress toward the pre-sales threshold required to resume construction at its Longlaville plant.
In a significant stride toward industrial-scale enzymatic recycling, green biotech company CARBIOS announced on Monday the signing of two separate multi-year commercial agreements with major entities in the beverage industry. These agreements mark a pivotal moment for the company, signifying its formal entry into the high-volume beverage sector and validating its proprietary technology for mass-market applications.
Until now, CARBIOS has primarily focused its development efforts on diverse packaging and textile solutions. The securing of these two new partners represents a strategic diversification, tapping into the beverage industry’s immense demand for high-quality, food-grade recycled PET (r-PET). Beverage manufacturers are currently under increasing regulatory and consumer pressure to reduce their reliance on virgin plastic and integrate sustainable materials into their supply chains.
By securing these agreements, CARBIOS has demonstrated that its enzymatic biorecycling technology meets the rigorous standards required by major beverage players. Unlike traditional mechanical recycling, which often results in the degradation of plastic quality over time, CARBIOS’s biological process allows for infinite recycling of PET without loss of properties, making it a highly attractive option for bottle manufacturers seeking circular economy solutions.
These commercial successes have immediate implications for CARBIOS’s flagship industrial project in Longlaville. The volume commitments from these two new agreements have propelled the site’s pre-commercialization level to approximately 50% of its maximum production capacity.
This milestone is a critical step in the company’s roadmap. The ultimate goal is to reach a pre-commercialization threshold of 70%, a specific condition set by financial partners to unlock additional non-dilutive funding. This funding is essential for the resumption and completion of the Longlaville plant's construction.
Management at CARBIOS has confirmed that negotiations are currently active with other potential partners. If successful, these subsequent deals are expected to bridge the gap between the current 50% and the required 70% capacity.
Alongside the commercial news, CARBIOS announced the securing of a €12.5 million regional grant. This injection of capital highlights the continued support from public institutions for sustainable industrial innovation in France. With this latest grant, the total amount of public funding secured by CARBIOS for its industrial endeavors now stands at €42.5 million.
Vincent Kamel, CEO of CARBIOS, emphasized the importance of these developments for the company's long-term strategy. "These new agreements confirm the robustness of our technology and the attractiveness of our offer for strategic sectors such as beverages. They also comfort our strategy of sector diversification," Kamel stated.
