GR3N, a Swiss company revolutionising the recycling of plastics and PET\/polyester fibres, has announced the completion of a \u20ac15.5 million Series B funding round led by 360 Capital, with VP Textile participating as a new investor. Growth Capital acted as financial advisor to GR3N. <\/p>\n\n
PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is one of the most widely used plastics in the world, with a market of 100 million tonnes. Today, 98% of recycling relies on mechanical technologies, which can only process clear and blue bottles \u2013 accounting for just 15% of the available PET. The remaining 85%, which includes textile fibres, films and coloured resins, ends up in landfill or is incinerated. <\/p>\n\n
At the same time, demand for recycled PET is growing rapidly, in line with changes to the regulatory framework. The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation requires manufacturers to achieve a minimum recycled PET content of up to 30% by 2030 and up to 65% by 2040. Meanwhile, brands in the drinks sector have announced their own ambitious targets for recycled content. Chemical recycling is the only technology capable of meeting this demand at scale. <\/p>\n\n
GR3N has developed MADE \u2013 Microwave Assisted DEpolymerization, a patented technology capable of processing 100% of PET waste \u2013 from both packaging and textile sources \u2013 with high yield and CO\u2082 emissions reduced by up to 80% compared to virgin PET. Unlike competing technologies (glycolysis, methanolysis, dissolution), MADE has no restrictions on raw materials and produces food-grade monomers that can be recycled indefinitely without any loss of performance. <\/p>\n\n
GR3N holds two patent families relating to the depolymerisation process and one patent family relating to its proprietary equipment (PEQ). <\/p>\n\n
The proceeds from the funding round will be allocated to the development of Modus, a first-of-its-kind plant with an annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes, located in Spain and developed in strategic partnership with Intecsa Industrial, a company within the Cobra IS industrial group, which is leading the engineering and EPC execution. The project has secured a \u20ac35 million grant agreement signed under the EU Innovation Fund (Large-scale industrial projects category), with financial closure expected in the fourth quarter of 2027 and commercial operations scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2030. <\/p>\n\n
GR3N has also announced the appointment of Martin Stephan as its new Chief Executive Officer. He brings with him over twenty years\u2019 experience in executive leadership roles in international business and technology, with a proven track record of driving growth and innovation in global markets. “I am very excited to join this talented team with the aim of bringing Microwave-Assisted Depolymerisation technology to market and making it the best technology available for the chemical recycling of PET. With this round of funding, and with the support of our financial and industrial partners, we are accelerating the construction of the first-of-its-kind plant that utilises our technology,\u201d said the new CEO (pictured) in a statement.<\/p>\n\n
“Textile waste is one of the most pressing and unresolved issues in the transition to sustainability. The fashion industry generates over 90 million tonnes of waste every year, with polyester dominating global fibre production, yet less than 1% of garments are recycled into new clothing. The loop has never been closed because the technology to do so did not exist. Until now. What convinced us at 360 Capital is that GR3N has done the hard work. Not only by proving the chemistry, but by designing a technology that handles the full complexity of real-world PET waste: mixed fabrics, coloured textiles, and contaminated streams. No restrictions on feedstock. A clear path to industrial scale. Modus will be the first proof that microwave depolymerisation can operate at the volumes the market actually demands. Regulatory pressure is real. Demand from brands is real. What was missing was a technology capable of meeting both. We believe GR3N is that technology,” says Alessandro Zaccaria, partner at 360 Capital <\/strong><\/p>\n\n “At VPTextile, we see our collaboration with the European technology developer GR3N as an innovative and sustainable solution for the chemical recycling of workwear and protective clothing containing polyester. Thanks to the high purity of the recycled TPA and MEG building blocks that GR3N produces, we can guarantee high-quality recycled polyester as a raw material for our sustainable garments,” says Kees Timmermans, textile innovator at VPTextile <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Swiss start-up has developed a system for recycling PET and is preparing to build a plant in Spain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":173452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_substack_draft_id":"","_substack_draft_url":"","_substack_last_pushed":"","_substack_premium":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1317],"tags":[1470,2236,1136,1145],"companies":[2270,3472,2426],"journalist":[1518],"class_list":["post-173458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funding-news","tag-cleantech-en","tag-europa-en","tag-startup-en-2","tag-venture-capital-en-2","companies-360-capital-en","companies-gr3n","companies-growth-capital-en","journalist-editorial-staff-en"],"featured_sizes_urls":{"thumbnail":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Martin-Stephan-mai-2023-carree.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"PET recycling"},"large":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Martin-Stephan-mai-2023-carree.jpg","width":1024,"height":1018,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"PET recycling"},"2048x2048":{"src":"https:\/\/www.startupbusiness.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Martin-Stephan-mai-2023-carree.jpg","width":1280,"height":1272,"crop":false,"srcset":false,"alt":"PET recycling"}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n