Avantium has gone public and raised €103M on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Bruxelles with Sofinnova Partner as the main shareholder.
Avantium, a spin-off from Shell, is developing renewable bioplastics made 100% from plant-based materials with the support of big partners such as Coca-Cola or Danone, for which the Dutch biotech is developing sustainable PlantBottles and yogurt cups, respectively.
The funds raised will be invested into taking Avantium’s technology to the market. First of all, the company will build the first commercial-scale plant for renewable furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in a joint venture with the German BASF. This compound is the main building block for polyethylene-furanoate (PEF), a 100% biobased substitute for the polyethylene-terephthalate (PET) currently used in recyclable plastics.
The IPO was multiple times oversubscribed, which is a great sign that renewable chemistry is still an emerging market. The leading European biotech VC Sofinnova Partners, which started investing in Avantium back in 2011, is now the main shareholder of the company.
I recently had the chance to chat with Denis Lucquin, MP at Sofinnova, when his VC raised €106M for a fund focused on renewable chemistry. He reckoned that Avantium is a “good candidate to become an European leader in this emerging industry.”
The market cap of Avantium will kick off tomorrow at €277M, way over other companies in the field such as the French Global Bioenergies, partnered with Audi to produce renewable gasoline, or Carbios, working on an infinite recycling process for bioplastics.
Images from Damix, Robert Paul van Beets /Shutterstock