Gresham House announces investment into bio-bean

Press release - London, 21 November 2019

Press release - London, 21 November 2019

The Boards of Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 1 plc and Gresham House Renewable Energy VCT 2 plc (the Gresham House VCTs or the VCTs) are very pleased to announce that they have made a new investment of £1.2 million into bio-bean, the world’s largest recycler of waste coffee grounds.

 

The bio-bean investment represents 30% of the £4 million funding round announced by bio-bean in April 2019. The Gresham House VCTs’ investment forms the final part of that round, and values bio-bean at £7.6 million.

The investment, split 50/50 between the two VCTs and respectively £800k of equity and £430k of debt, will further enable the company to upgrade and expand its capacity in order to improve efficiencies and execute its business plan.

Within its business plan bio-bean is seeking to achieve both geographical expansion into mainland Europe and to launch new products in the flavour and fragrance market.

bio-bean recycles used coffee grounds into efficient, sustainable products for both consumer and industrial applications. This includes Coffee Logs, an eco product for wood burners and stoves that is quickly growing in consumer popularity and is stocked by several major UK retailers. bio-bean will now seek to expand product output considerably.

The investment will also help bio-bean, which is currently UK-based, to apply its successful model for recycling waste coffee grounds into mainland Europe, working in co-ordination with various international partners within bio-bean’s value chain.

Bozkurt Aydinoglu, Investment Director at Gresham House and co-manager of the VCTs stated:

bio-bean has a unique proposition and hard asset backing, meaning it fits very well within our existing sustainable investment portfolio. We look forward to seeing the fruits of the team’s labours as they build scale and diversify their product portfolio.”

The Gresham House investment team remains on the look-out for new opportunities to put capital to work in the clean technology space, seeking to help the UK’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

bio-bean was advised on this transaction by ClearlySo, Europe’s leading impact investment bank.

Find out more about bio-bean: bio-bean.com

 

Media enquiries

KL Communications
Camilla Esmund / Charles Gorman / Alex Hogan
T: +44 (0) 203 995 6699
E: gh@kl-communications.com

 

ClearlySo

John Lloyd
T: +44 (0)20 7490 9520
E: john.lloyd@clearlyso.com

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