Italian recycler Rubber Conversion raises €2.5m to boost capacity

Milan, Italy – Italian rubber recycler Rubber Conversion has closed a €2.5 million fund raising round to strengthen production capacity and pursue growth in new markets.

Launched in Verona, Italy in 2017, Rubber Conversion holds a patented industrial technology for rubber devulcanisation and manufactures mixtures of devulcanised ‘high-quality’ rubber, “free from harmful chemicals and with low environmental impact.”

The compounds are recovered from post-consumer production waste as well as end-of-life tires, and can be used “in significant percentages” in new rubber products and goods.

The investment round, according to co-founder Francesco di Pierro, will help the company “strengthen production capacity, implement new business models and grow in new markets.”

In addition, Rubber Conversion aims to use the funding for further evolving its technology, developing product range and strengthening its team.

According to the Italian company the recycled rubber market is “growing constantly”, with the current European demand of 200 kilotonnes per year set to grow five times over the next 25 years.

The growth, it said, will be primarily driven by new European and international sustainability regulations, which encourage end-of-life products integrated management.

Rubber Conversion provides both closed cycle solutions for production waste recovery and manufactures devulcanised compounds from post-consumer rubber.

The compounds, according to the company, retain “most of the original raw material static and dynamic properties.”

Key investors in the capital raising round included CDP Venture Capital SGR through its Evolution Fund; Liftt venture capital chaired by scientist and entrepreneur Stefano Buono and Swiss-based Enet Energy, which operates in energy and raw materials.