Relicta, the Italian Startup that Fights Against Ocean Pollution

Engaged in the production of water-soluble bioplastic material for packaging, Relicta, led by Davide Sanna is the winning startup of #SIOS23 Sardinia. Since 2017, when it was born within the Contamination lab of the University of Sassari, it has been working to recover waste from fish processing to obtain, through a mixture, a plastic, transparent and odorless film for packaging.

The end result is a compostable, biodegradable, and water-soluble material that provides the market with environmentally friendly alternatives to reduce environmental pollution, particularly ocean pollution.

If you want to read more about Relicta and how the startup plans to clean the ocean from plastics, download for free our companion app. The Born2Invest mobile app keeps its readers up to date with the most important business news of the day.

An unexpected award for Relicta

“Ours was a completely unexpected victory, the finalist teams were all very strong and we would not have imagined we would win,” said Andrea Farina, co-founder and CTO of Relicta.

“I think the X factor that distinguished us is the proximity to scientific research and technology transfer. Being, ours, a product developed in the University has a high potential for growth. This recognition makes us not only very grateful and enthusiastic but also spurs us to work better and have more stimulation.”

Round and future goals

Last December Relicta closed a €500,000 investment round led by Scientifica Venture Capital, Terra Next, the bio-economy startup accelerator (part of the CDP National Network), and Vertis SGR through the Venture 3 Technology Transfer fund. The investment will be used for technology validation and product refinement. “We are using the funding from the round to build the first laboratory pilot plant to produce the standardized blend and coil directly on industrial machinery,” Andrea said, “We will have the standardized prototype at the end of 2023, ready to be tested on industrial packaging machinery.

Relicta’s ultimate goal is to build a profitable, scalable, and, at the same time, sustainable business model. “Among our next goals is to optimize the reel production process by 2023 and open a new round of financing to be able to build the industrial production plant,” Andrea says. “We are currently in contact with a Norwegian company that wants to test our bioplastic in their products. Ours is a very innovative material that could change the ways of use.”

Innovation in sustainability

Relicta’s innovative potential opens up new ways of disposal and a new way of looking at bioplastics that currently focuses on the packaging but gives additional value to the company’s products that will benefit from its waste.

“Our transparent water-soluble plastic solubilizes in cold water in 20 days in hot water instantly at 50 degrees, and the consumer can dispose of it independently within the home,” concludes the CTO. “Thanks to a series of funds allocated by the region of Sardinia, we have already been able to go to Silicon Valley, but we could also start from here, from our region, to expand to international markets. Relicta’s story is yet to be written.

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(Featured image by  sergeitokmakov via Pixabay)

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First published in StartupItalia, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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