Kubik, a plastic upcycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed extension, months after saying preliminary fairness funding. The startup’s newest funding is from African Renaissance Companions, an East African enterprise capital agency; Endgame Capital, an investor with a bias for applied sciences round local weather change; and King Philanthropies, a local weather and excessive poverty investor.
The contemporary capital comes because the startup scales its operations in Ethiopia following the launch of its manufacturing facility in Addis Ababa, the place it’s turning plastic waste into interlocking constructing supplies like bricks, columns, beams and jambs. Kubik co-founder and CEO Kidus Asfaw, informed TechCrunch that the startup intends to double down on its operations in Addis Ababa, because it lays floor for pan-African progress from 2025.
Kubik’s strategy includes upcycling plastic waste into “low-carbon, sturdy, and reasonably priced” constructing supplies utilizing proprietary know-how, which Asfaw says they’ll out-license for sooner pan-African, and the eventual world progress.
“What we need to do is resolve issues for cities and so, we’re excited about our enterprise mannequin being actually round. The way in which we’ve arrange our enterprise technique, is that now we’re within the focus part of proving this mannequin right here in Ethiopia. We’ll develop it to some extra markets to show the range of the context during which this enterprise mannequin can work. However over time, what we truly need to do is transition to turning into an organization that’s licensing out this know-how,” mentioned Asfaw, who co-founded Kubik with Penda Marre in 2021.
“That’s how we really feel that we are able to actually scale. It’s not by having factories everywhere in the world, however having this trade undertake a brand new method of constructing supplies globally,” he mentioned.
He mentioned their product permits builders to erect partitions with out the necessity for cement, aggregates or metal, making the development sooner and bringing the associated fee down by “at the least 40% much less per sq. meter”. Value is a key barrier in development and the provision of reasonably priced or cheaper constructing supplies presents a greater choice for builders of affordable-housing tasks.
Asfaw mentioned Kubik’s supplies have handed security checks by the European requirements company, Intertek, which checked, amongst different issues, energy, toxicity and flammability.
“We don’t need to be promoting one thing that’s dangerous for human beings. We didn’t begin gross sales till these studies have been accessible,” he mentioned.
The startup at the moment recycles 5,000 kilograms (and may do 45,000 at capability) of plastic waste a day. It has signed partnerships with corporates and Addis Ababa municipality for an everyday provide of plastic waste. Within the near-term, it’s taking a look at product diversification to cowl pavers and flooring materials.
It’s estimated that the world produces 430 million tonnes of plastic a yr, two thirds are for short-term use. Evidently, the world is choking on plastic waste, and whereas the state of affairs is exacerbated by consumerism traits in developed international locations, in areas going through speedy urbanization and financial progress like African cities, plastic waste is getting uncontrolled too, requiring pressing responses. Within the coming days, startups like Kubik will play a number one function in offering sustainable options for the menace.
