Xampla, a UK-based materials innovation company, has secured $14 million in a funding round led by Emerald Technology Ventures. BGF and Matterwave Ventures also participated in the investment. The capital will help accelerate Xampla’s mission to replace single-use plastics with their plant-based alternatives, known as Morro™ materials.
Xampla has developed these revolutionary materials from plant proteins. The plant-based polymers are fully biodegradable, plastic-free, and home compostable. The company aims to replace more than ten billion units of single-use plastics over the next five years.
This includes plastics used in takeaway boxes, coffee cups, and sachets. With global plastic production estimated to rise to a billion tonnes annually and less than 10% of plastic ever produced being recycled, the environmental impact is massive. Xampla’s Morro™ materials offer sustainable alternatives that do not compromise on performance.
The materials maintain the recyclability of cardboard without compromising on grease, oxygen, and moisture barrier properties. Xampla has established partnerships with major companies such as 2M Group of Companies, Huhtamaki, and Transcend Packaging.
Accelerating plant-based plastic alternatives
These collaborations have already led to the replacement of plastic coatings on boxes used by food delivery services like Just Eat Takeaway and Bunzl Catering Supplies. The Morro™ films being developed through these partnerships are soluble and can replace polluting plastic PVA films commonly used in dishwasher tablets and laundry pods. The innovative materials are also food-safe and suitable for use as edible packaging for a range of single-serve products from sweets to soups.
Xampla is working with leading FMCG brands and fragrance houses to deploy Morro™ materials as alternatives to plastic microencapsulates used in homecare and beauty products. Xampla’s CEO, Alexandra French, stated, “This is a major vote of confidence for our revolutionary replacements for polluting plastics, and will see us expanding into Asia Pacific as well as growing in the UK and Europe. We have proven to investors and to brands that Morro™ materials are the real deal in making plastic a material of the past.
Our ambition now is nothing less than to see our products become the world’s go-to plastic replacement.”
Lead investors are equally optimistic about Xampla’s potential to catalyze a shift in materials used globally. Neil Cameron of Emerald Technology Ventures highlighted the company’s alignment with their mission to revolutionize innovative packaging. Rowan Bird of BGF praised Xampla’s scalable and practical alternatives to plastic, and Ines Kolmsee of Matterwave Ventures emphasized the technology’s ease of adoption and capital efficiency.
Xampla is a materials innovation company focused on developing natural materials from plants to combat plastic pollution. Morro™ materials are designed to eliminate the most polluting plastics and are made from renewable plant proteins. These materials are fully biodegradable, plastic-free, and exempt from the European Union’s Single-Use Plastic Directive (SUPD).
