Notpla, a leading innovator in sustainable packaging and winner of The Earthshot Prize in 2022, today announced the successful completion of a £20 million fundraising round (over US$25 million), doubling its initial target despite challenging economic conditions. The Series A+ raise marks a significant step forward in Notpla’s mission to offer an alternative, natural solution for single-use plastics. With their sustainable, seaweed-based alternatives, Notpla expect to replace over 100 million single-use plastics per year.
The capital injection marks a significant vote of confidence in Notpla’s business model and growth strategy, signifying a positive advancement for next-generation materials such as Notpla’s. Founded by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Notpla has been at the forefront of sustainable innovation, creating natural - even edible - solutions to many of the plastic packaging items we use every day. Winning Prince William’s Earthshot Prize in 2022, their impact has already been felt across Europe where they've replaced over 16 million single-use plastic items. With this new funding, they’re ready to scale their solution even further, boosting their unique material properties and building on their US presence
"Our investors recognise the commercial potential of our technology and our unique solutions. This funding allows us to accelerate our growth and continue leading the market in sustainable innovation." said Pierre Paslier, Notpla’s Co-Foudner and Co-CEO. "This investment is more than just financial support; it’s a validation of the growing demand from consumers around the world for real solutions to the plastic problem.”
Since launching in 2014, Notpla has been a trailblazer in the packaging sector. Their now-famed ‘Ooho’ - an edible liquid bubble made from seaweed - has attracted brands such as Lucozade and Decathlon to reduce plastic from their operations. Looking to broaden their impact, Notpla applied their innovative material to takeaway food packaging, developing a solution to the problematic plastic, bioplastic and chemical barriers used in conventional packaging as a grease-barrier. From this, Notpla’s seaweed-lined takeaway food containers were born and are now produced in their millions, distributed throughout Europe and used by some of the industries biggest names. In 2024 Notpla added rigid cutlery to their portfolio, producing a home-compostable ice cream spoon which is now available at scale.
With this funding, Notpla is targeting a vast uplift in their impact, projecting the replacement of over 100 million units of single-use plastic with Notpla materials annually within the next 2 years. Fuelled by increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly switch-outs, the company’s innovative packaging, which is both plastic-free and home-compostable, has been adopted by major corporations in Europe including Compass Group, Decathlon, and Just Eat Takeaway.com. Notpla’s materials are currently used in 10 European markets and help to eliminate plastic in leading stadiums and venues such as Aston Villa FC, The O2 Arena, Allianz Stadium, and Tottenham Hotspur.
In 2023, Notpla was part of a regulatory breakthrough where the Dutch government concluded that Notpla’s food packaging coating was the only application on the market that met its definition of plastic-free under the Single Use Plastic Directive (SUPD). Notpla’s materials are proven to meet the stringent criteria set by the SUPD in that they are both natural polymers derived from seaweed and are not chemically modified.
"Our goal has always been to create products and materials that can make a real difference," added Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Notpla Co-Founder and Co-CEO “from our early days producing Ooho in our student kitchen, to seeing runners consume them in their thousands at the London Marathon, all the way through to today where we’re making millions of real, credible packaging solutions for industries - it’s just huge. This investment brings us one step closer to a world where truly plastic-free packaging is the standard, not the exception."