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Despite the difficulties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing economic instability, new startups are launched daily. We combined the 8 most outstanding and worthful circular startups that you should watch out for. All of them have generated new ideas, from plastic recycling to re-mining and battery reuse.
What is a circular economy?
Traditionally, a product is manufactured and the waste, including the packaging, is discarded after use. The circular economy, on the other hand, means that nothing is thrown away but is either reused or built to prevent waste. Numerous startups have incorporated the circular economy into their business models to realize the circular economy.
Homespring
Homespring is a website that provides furniture-as-a-service to the Millennial generation. It provides subscriptions for designer furniture, allowing users to turn any payment made into an installment if they wish to keep the furniture. Notably, the gross amount would not exceed the retail price at which the item is sold. Among the benefits of choosing Homespring are free home delivery and assembly, increased flexibility, and a fast turnaround time of usually less than a week.
Grover
Grover is a subscription-based technology rental platform that enables you to rent technology devices for as long as you want (a minimum of one month) rather than purchasing a new one. Its mission is to reduce e-waste and integrate sustainability into everyday life at an affordable price. You can rent over 2,000 tech items across ten categories, and if your gadget fails, Grover covers 90 percent of the cost of repairs with no deposit required and no secret fees. Since its inception in 2015, the business has grown to 84 employees and over 200,000 registered users across Germany. To date, the startup has raised €62 million.
VerdraaidGoed
VerdraaidGoed, based in Rotterdam, promotes a circular economy by specializing in product design from residual content, social employment, material value preservation, and cycle closure. It participates in a variety of activities, including transforming roadside emergency phones into charging stations for electric cars, converting misprints into notebooks, and repurposing old clothes as office decoration products.
Graapz
Graapz, a French startup founded in July 2017, assists local businesses in reselling fruit and vegetables that have been removed from shelves due to lack of freshness or for aesthetic reasons. Graapz created an adapted offer to allow merchants to sell surplus goods at discounted rates on a web platform after noticing that few options existed to increase the value of these fragile products and in amounts too small to be recovered by charities. Last November, Phenix, a company specializing in the recycling of unsold products and the elimination of corporate waste, announced a €15 million fundraising drive to expand its international expansion and reach a broader audience through the introduction of a direct-to-consumer deal. It recently acquired Graapz, a specialist in the revaluation of unsold fruit and vegetables, to expand its private consumer offering.
The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is a socially conscious organization that has developed a passive plastic collection technology. This startup collects plastic from bodies of water by using ocean currents. According to the firm, its technology is one of the most significant achievements in the process of ocean cleaning. The Ocean Cleanup asserts that it would have a profound effect on the climate.
Phoenix Tailings
Phoenix Tailings is a startup based in the United States that sells re-mined materials. The startup’s patented re-mining technology recovers high-quality metal from mine tailings, significantly lowering production costs. It manufactures aluminum, alumina, iron, titanium, titania, silica, and rare earth metals for a variety of industries, including automotive, medical technology, and chemicals. The startup’s operation generates no waste or carbon emissions and thus facilitates the transition to a circular economy.
Aeropowder
Aeropowder is a London-based startup that develops novel materials from surplus feathers. Their mission is to repurpose waste from society. Per day, we consume over 134 million chickens, and the poultry industry produces over 10,000 tons of feathers, which are discarded. As a result, there is a sizable demand for feathers used in a circular economy. Feathers are made of keratin, a protein that is chemically resistant and physically solid. They are one of the lightest natural fibers and also excellent thermal insulators due to their microscopic structure. The business was founded in 2016 and has raised €50,000 through a Horizon 2020 grant.
Circlely
Circlely is a French startup that is building a website for product reference. Distributors and retailers can use the platform to sell end-of-life goods through local omnichannel distribution. It digitizes product data to connect it with consumers and social networks on a local level. The startup promotes a circular economy by reducing manufacturing waste and redistributing unsold goods locally.
Want to build your circular startup?
Perhaps after reading and analyzing some of the most promising examples of circular startups, you’ve come up with your own idea? Perhaps you’ve discovered the ideal niche for your circular startup and are now prepared to embark on your journey? Then act quickly, as opportunities to win narrow market spaces present themselves unexpectedly, and you must be among the first to seize them. And treat each move as an adventure while carefully planning your way through the dense forest of your first business venture. However, what if you’re totally unfamiliar with it and have no idea who can assist you? Or you have no idea what the product would cost or how to test it?
In that case, we can provide a direct specificity of your product development process. Over the past 10+ years, we have been involved in numerous circular startups and entrepreneurs that have been actively engaged in developing unique digital products. All of them have been successfully raised to a solid stage when they can efficiently labor productive results. How did they accomplish that with us? Everything has begun with our technological flow or, more precisely, with the Product Development Strategy Session. It is an accessible business consulting service where our experts will produce a general plan covering the future product development and the action plan with high-level features. Already got interested? Leave your project details below, and we will contact you in under 24 hours.
