Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Grasspaper (Grassfibre raw material and grasspaper products for the retail, paper and packaging industry, helping to reduce plastic and textile pollution and CO2 emissions on a global scale)
Période du rapport: 2022-02-01 au 2023-01-31
With grassfibre Creapaper introduces a highly innovative, sustainable and cost-efficient alternative raw material for the European paper industry. About half of the 400 million tonnes paper produced worldwide every year are based on wood pulp. This consumes about 40% of the global industrial wood harvest. Moreover, transport and processing of the wood consume a lot of water, chemicals and energy. Costs and impact to nature are severe. Creapaper provides an unique solution to this problems by introducing grassfibres, produced by a novel patented mechanical process, as a new resource for the paper industry. This innovative material will reduce the raw material costs of paper mills by 50-70 % (vs wood pulp) and is compatible to standard production equipment. Grasspaper products are free of noxious substances, printable and have a distinctive sustainable, yet premium appearance and up to 75% of CO2 emissions are saved. They are therefore very attractive for packaging and to replace single-use plastics. Several awards in the packaging industry and first orders from large, well-known brands confirm these USPs of grasspaper products. While Creapaper's primary customers are paper mills, also brand owners and retailers will be addressed with paper products. This will increase the demand for grasspaper and grassfibres rapidly and allow a fast scale-up in the European key markets. We will establish grassfibre as the paper industry's third raw material source besides wood pulp and waste-paper. Creapaper has installed a first grassfibre production centre. In the project we will modify and optimise paper conversion machines, to allow cost-efficient mass production of grasspaper products. Furthermore, 100% treeless grass-textile paper is developed to market readiness. This next stage in our commercialisation strategy allows us to evolve our business model from grassfibre and grasspaper towards grasspaper products to substitute single-use plastics like straws, cups, and bags.
During the project, the market demand for grasspaper solutions increased significantly but came under pressure by consumers recession fears and inflationary pressue in H2 2022. Nevertheless, retailers and brand owners search for eco-friendly alternatives to replace disposable and single-use plastics products and to reduce highly expensive wood pulp paper products. In the last years, the prices for virgin pulp increased drastically and reached record level in 2021.
We established a partnership with one of Europe’s most largest paper cup producers, and together optimised the grasspaper processing of a grasspaper coffee to go cup. In another major project, we could adjust the grasspaper smoothness to allow the optimal runability on standard paper converting machines for the production of a well-known chocolate brand for their vegan chocolate packaging. Several more grasspaper products were realised and Creapaper launched its own grasspaper shop https://graspapier.shop/.
Furthermore, Creapaper successfully closed a series B financing round of € 20 million. This funding round is fundamental for Creapaper’s vision of reducing CO2 emissions and avoiding further plastic waste on a global scale. Besides the EIC Fund (with a € 3 million equity investment), Investors from the USA and also the early investor eCAPITAL co-invested. This EUR 20m series B is a quantum leap for Creapaper. Welcoming global ecological game changers like Ranpak and JS Capital among our shareholders will add value way beyond money and will enable us to accelerate our growth and to prepare for our global expansion.
We established a partnership with one of Europe’s most largest paper cup producers, and together optimised the grasspaper processing of a grasspaper coffee to go cup. In another major project, we could adjust the grasspaper smoothness to allow the optimal runability on standard paper converting machines for the production of a well-known chocolate brand for their vegan chocolate packaging. Several more grasspaper products were realised and Creapaper launched its own grasspaper shop https://graspapier.shop/.
Furthermore, Creapaper successfully closed a series B financing round of € 20 million. This funding round is fundamental for Creapaper’s vision of reducing CO2 emissions and avoiding further plastic waste on a global scale. Besides the EIC Fund (with a € 3 million equity investment), Investors from the USA and also the early investor eCAPITAL co-invested. This EUR 20m series B is a quantum leap for Creapaper. Welcoming global ecological game changers like Ranpak and JS Capital among our shareholders will add value way beyond money and will enable us to accelerate our growth and to prepare for our global expansion.
Creapaper could establish as THE company for grasspaper and unique partner for retail, system gastronomy and brand owners to develop intelligent packaging solutions and help to stem the global plastic flood. We use a patented process to produce graspap, our raw material required for producing grasspaper, which helps to reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption in the global paper & packaging industry. We have already developed and placed CO2-saving grasspaper products like hygienic papers, food & carrying bags as well as single-use plastic replacements with retail clients in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy, thereby rapidly expanding our reach throughout Europe.
Grassfibre pulp is less expensive than wood pulp, regionally available and by the novel patented mechanical process Creapaper only needs 6 litres water and 0.2 MWh energy per tonne Grass Fibre during production. In comparison: 2.2 tonnes wood, 6 tonnes water, 1.4 MWh energy and aggressive chemical treatments are necessary to produce 1 tonne virgin wood pulp. The independent gate-to-gate LCA analysis showed, that the production of our grassfibre raw material reduces the CO2 emissions by 95% compared to wood pulp production.
To further scale up the quantities of available grasspaper in the market, Creapaper follows a pull strategy and focused marketing and sales activities on big retail, mainly food retail, and on global brands. Creapaper develops individual mock-up and marketing ideas which seamlessly fit into the ecological mission statements and the CO2 saving goals of global brands. This project has a huge impact on Creapaper, as it contributes to our strategy to vertically evolve in the supply chain. We advance from a pure grassfibre raw material supplier for paper mills, into grasspaper and grasspaper products manufacturing. To penetrate the market and develop the grasspaper market into a mass market, we provide a full-service partnership to all stakeholders in the paper industry. This already began by qualifying and advising paper mills individually for grasspaper production and - during this project – is continued in the modification and individual development of paper converting plants at paper converters and packaging manufacturers. By this measure, we generate applications for grasspaper products and as result boost grassfibre demand.
The EIC support will allow a market introduction of first grasspaper products and have a huge impact and a much higher demand for grassfibre raw material also contributing to fast increasing revenues.
Currently, grasspaper products consist of up to 50% grass combined with virgin pulp or with recycled paper. We want to follow the market demand and further increase the share of grassfibre in our grasspaper. With grasspaper products going into the mass market, Creapaper helps European brands in becoming eco-friendlier and more sustainable, as well as contributes to a clean and sustainable society.
The positive impact of the project is also reflected in the awards received by Creapaper in 2022.
Following the € 20M series B round with a € 3M equity investment by the EIC Fund, Creapaper is proud to be listed among the EIC Green Centaurs in the EIC Impact Report 2022.
After having received the Red Herring Top 100 Europe as well as the Red Herring Top 100 North America, the jury of the renowned Red Herring business magazine once again honoured creapaper with the Red Herring Top 100 Global Award. To be awarded a prize by the Red Herring jury, Creapaper had to demonstrate solid market maturity in addition to its innovation potential. Grasspaper is widely used in graphic applications as well as for primary and secondary packaging. Companies like Rewe, Edeka, Coop, TeeGschwendner and many others already rely on grasspaper.
Grassfibre pulp is less expensive than wood pulp, regionally available and by the novel patented mechanical process Creapaper only needs 6 litres water and 0.2 MWh energy per tonne Grass Fibre during production. In comparison: 2.2 tonnes wood, 6 tonnes water, 1.4 MWh energy and aggressive chemical treatments are necessary to produce 1 tonne virgin wood pulp. The independent gate-to-gate LCA analysis showed, that the production of our grassfibre raw material reduces the CO2 emissions by 95% compared to wood pulp production.
To further scale up the quantities of available grasspaper in the market, Creapaper follows a pull strategy and focused marketing and sales activities on big retail, mainly food retail, and on global brands. Creapaper develops individual mock-up and marketing ideas which seamlessly fit into the ecological mission statements and the CO2 saving goals of global brands. This project has a huge impact on Creapaper, as it contributes to our strategy to vertically evolve in the supply chain. We advance from a pure grassfibre raw material supplier for paper mills, into grasspaper and grasspaper products manufacturing. To penetrate the market and develop the grasspaper market into a mass market, we provide a full-service partnership to all stakeholders in the paper industry. This already began by qualifying and advising paper mills individually for grasspaper production and - during this project – is continued in the modification and individual development of paper converting plants at paper converters and packaging manufacturers. By this measure, we generate applications for grasspaper products and as result boost grassfibre demand.
The EIC support will allow a market introduction of first grasspaper products and have a huge impact and a much higher demand for grassfibre raw material also contributing to fast increasing revenues.
Currently, grasspaper products consist of up to 50% grass combined with virgin pulp or with recycled paper. We want to follow the market demand and further increase the share of grassfibre in our grasspaper. With grasspaper products going into the mass market, Creapaper helps European brands in becoming eco-friendlier and more sustainable, as well as contributes to a clean and sustainable society.
The positive impact of the project is also reflected in the awards received by Creapaper in 2022.
Following the € 20M series B round with a € 3M equity investment by the EIC Fund, Creapaper is proud to be listed among the EIC Green Centaurs in the EIC Impact Report 2022.
After having received the Red Herring Top 100 Europe as well as the Red Herring Top 100 North America, the jury of the renowned Red Herring business magazine once again honoured creapaper with the Red Herring Top 100 Global Award. To be awarded a prize by the Red Herring jury, Creapaper had to demonstrate solid market maturity in addition to its innovation potential. Grasspaper is widely used in graphic applications as well as for primary and secondary packaging. Companies like Rewe, Edeka, Coop, TeeGschwendner and many others already rely on grasspaper.