USAID Partner Circulate Capital Announces Inaugural Investments in India and Indonesia

Circulate Capital, the Singapore-based investment management company focused on advancing the circular economy, today announced that the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), the world’s first investment fund dedicated to the ocean plastic crisis in South and Southeast Asia, has made its inaugural investments in two plastic recycling companies located in India and Indonesia for a total investment of US$6 million.

The US$106 million CCOF is backed by several of the world’s leading companies, including PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), the first investor; Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG); Dow (NYSE: DOW); Danone (EPA: BN); CHANEL; Unilever (NYSE: UN); The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO); and Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem). Not only do each of these investors commit capital to the solutions, they also contribute technical and procurement expertise to help the portfolio scale and drive maximum impact.

CCOF’s first investments include companies at the forefront of their industries, specializing in building markets to collect and recycle local plastic waste into raw materials that can become tradable commodities:

  • Lucro Plastecycle Private Limited (Lucro) in Mumbai, India: a homegrown Indian manufacturer that developed an integrated process to collect, sort and recycle difficult-to-manage flexible plastic for its own production of flexible products (such as shrink wrap and films) and to sell as high-quality recycled plastic granules to manufacturers across the country; and
  • PT Tridi Oasis Group (Tridi Oasis) in Jakarta, Indonesia: a female-led, Indonesian company specializing in recycling PET bottles into rPET flakes, which are used to manufacture circular packaging and textiles.

The investments made by CCOF will help to build markets and circular plastic value chains that prevent plastic leakage and support local communities.

The loan made to Tridi Oasis is 50% guaranteed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development to incentivize investment in the recycling value chain to combat ocean plastic pollution, further de-risking the investment and demonstrating blended finance in action.

Circulate Capital invests in and supports start-ups, organizations and small and medium-sized enterprises across the entire plastic value chain, from innovations in material to advanced recycling technologies. It seeks to mobilize catalytic capital into the waste management and recycling industry to prove that investing in this sector is scalable in these countries and can generate competitive returns, while moving to solve the ocean plastic crisis.

In the current context, we are even more convinced that we can create a meaningful contribution by providing sustainable jobs and preventing pollution by turning the plastic waste on our streets and beaches into valuable products. We are pleased to work with Circulate Capital to scale our capacity to recycle local plastic waste, to grow our customer base by partnering with international and local manufacturers (including Circulate Capital’s investors), and to diversify our products to increase our impact and prevent more plastic from ending up in the environment.

Dian Kurniawati, CEO, Tridi Oasis

About Circulate Capital

Circulate Capital is an investment management firm dedicated to incubating and financing companies that prevent ocean plastic. We focus on the prevention of mismanaged plastic waste in countries located in South Asia and Southeast Asia, regions that contribute disproportionately to ocean plastic pollution primarily because they often lack investment in critical waste and recycling infrastructure to manage the problem. We were created in collaboration with Ocean Conservancy, and our founding investors include PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, CHANEL, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC.

About PT Tridi Oasis Group

Tridi Oasis is an Indonesian, female-led recycling company aiming to turn problems in waste management into opportunities through recycling local plastic waste into usable raw materials. Established in 2016, Tridi Oasis produces recycled PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) flakes which can be transformed into sustainable packaging and textiles. Tridi Oasis is working closely with local and international partners as well as local communities to advance the circular economy, create more sustainable jobs for Indonesians along the waste management value chain and create a positive impact on the environment.

For more information, please contact the USAID Ocean Plastics Team oceanplastics@usaid.gov

Read the full press release from Circulate Capital here.