Agilyx Secures $22M in Funding
Joanna Schroeder April 4, 2011
Renewable energy company Agilyx Corporation has secured $22 million in Series B funding. Agilyx believes they are the first company to economically covert difficult recycle waste plastic into synthetic crude oil. The monies will be used to expand operations and accelerate the growth of their technology to market. The funding round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and major investors included but were not limited to Waste Management, and Total Energy Ventures International, an affiliate of Total S.A., a major oil and gas company.
"This latest investment in Agilyx represents a significant milestone for our company," said Chris Ulum, chief executive officer of Agilyx Corporation. "With these funds and strategic partners at our side, we are well positioned to help our customers and the communities in which they operate improve the diversion and recovery of waste plastics, and create new local sources of crude oil. By providing this alternative while the world's insatiable appetite for oil continues, our solution can offset the use of fossil crude oil and create new cleantech jobs in the process."
The company currently has a fully permitted and patented waste plastic conversion technology that recycles waste plastic into synthetic crude. The process is scalable, versatile and environmentally friendly according to the company. The company is working in conjunction with other companies to help them manage plastic waste streams. Today, Agilyx has an operational facility near Portland, Oregon that is the largest commercial waste plastic to synthetic crude oil facility in the U.S. To date, the company has sold more than 120,000 gallons of its crude oil produced from 1 million pounds of plastic that would otherwise have been incinerated or landfilled.
"Waste Management wants to maximize the value of the materials it manages," said Tim Cesarek, managing director of Organic Growth at Waste Management. "Agilyx's technology complements Waste Management's advancement of thermal chemical conversion technology platforms and provides us with a viable option for processing contaminated and difficult to recycle waste plastics while creating a high value commodity."
Manoelle Lepoutre, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Development for Total S.A. added, "As a major plastics manufacturer and as an oil refining company, Total is pleased to support the further development of Agilyx, whose technology offers a scalable economic option to recovering waste plastics."
Energy, Environment, Oil