The European Investment Fund (EIF), a part of European Investment Bank Group, has invested €50m ($54.20m) in Dutch venture capital Infinity Recycling's Circular Plastics Fund (CPF). 

The latest investment will be used for accelerating circularity in the plastics industry.

According to the European Union (EU), the transaction was supported by the InvestEU programme, which aims to mobilise an additional €372bn investment to strengthen EU policy priorities between 2021 and 2027.

EIF chief executive Marjut Falkstedt said: “The proportion of plastic packaging that is recycled is still far too low.

“Our climate change and environmental sustainability challenge is a combination of many different issues, and the excessive use of plastics is a major factor.

“A lot can be achieved by changing our habits, but innovation is key to finding new ways of dealing with structural plastic use and making sure we use every piece of plastic as many times as possible. With the support of the InvestEU programme, we are very happy to be supporting this kind of innovation.”

The CPF I is a European impact fund, established in Luxembourg, with an initial target size of €150m, a third of which is covered under EIF's commitment.

It is an Article 9 “dark green” impact fund, which is a part of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

This circularity fund supports companies that focus on developing scalable, advanced plastics recycling technologies.

The fund directly provides financial assistance to companies for industrial and commercial scaling up of their operations.

Infinity Recycling managing partner Jeroen Kelder said: “Demand for the use of recycled commodities in plastics production is on the rise, but only a few advanced plastics recycling technologies have been able to achieve commercial scale.

“While these technologies are often viable, many companies lack the specialised financial structuring and business development skills required to scale up production, source high-quality inputs and establish supply agreements with offtake counterparties.”