According to the recent news published in Expansión , the Catalan start-up VEnvirotech faces 2025 with two major objectives: to start the large-scale commercialization of its material and to close a second round of financing. The company, based in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, aspires to generate seven million euros in revenue thanks to the sale of its 100% biodegradable bioplastics, after six years validating its technology.
As explained by L'Econòmic in 2020, VEnvirotech was born with the desire to transform organic waste into a resource with high added value. The co-founders, Patricia Aymà and Noelia Márquez, opted for a closed and decentralized circular economy model: they install compact plants in waste-generating companies (in many cases, agri-food) and convert the waste into bioplastics on site, saving on transport costs and reducing the environmental impact. After having raised 11.2 million euros in 2021, as pointed out by the newspaper Ara , it is now seeking to complete a second round of financing to scale production and grow in the global market.
One of the pillars in the validation and improvement of VEnvirotech's technology is its participation in the Industrial Doctorate Plan of the Generalitat de Catalunya, with three applied research projects that cover the main aspects of the process of transforming waste into bioplastics.
The three industrial doctoral projects in which VEnvirotech participates are aligned with the core of its activity: transforming organic waste into biodegradable bioplastics. Each project addresses a key point in this process, contributing to perfecting the technology and consolidating a business model based on the circular economy.
In 2021, Venvirotech started a project with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) focused on improving the synthesis and characterization of PHAs, biopolymers generated by bacteria in waste fermentation processes. Still ongoing, the project works on the design of new materials, studying properties such as resistance or compatibility with food and biomedical uses. This is fundamental for VEnvirotech, which aspires to offer bioplastics with optimal characteristics for multiple industrial sectors.
Also in 2021, but this time with the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and Eurecat, the company is starting a project to valorize agro-industrial waste to increase the production of bioplastics. In this project, also still ongoing, it is analyzed how to optimize the hydrolysis phase and acidogenic fermentation to obtain the precursors (volatile fatty acids) necessary to synthesize PHAs from agri-food waste. By improving the efficiency of these steps, VEnvirotech can maximize the yield in the production of bioplastics, reducing costs and expanding the possibilities of applying waste in a circular economy model.
The third project , launched in 2022, in collaboration with the University of Girona (UdG), addresses the selective concentration of volatile fatty acids before their conversion into PHAs. Using techniques such as reverse osmosis and direct osmosis, the aim is to achieve scalable and high-performance processes to strengthen the industrial viability of bioplastics production. For VEnvirotech, this means ensuring a consistent supply of high-quality raw material, one of the keys to scaling the business model and reaching wider markets.
Together, the three projects cover the critical points of VEnvirotech's technology: the selection and optimization of raw materials, the improvement of fermentation processes and the creation of new applications for the resulting bioplastics. This allows the company to consolidate its position in the biodegradable materials market and offer sustainable solutions that reduce the footprint of conventional plastics.
As a practical example, VEnvirotech manages four tons of beer production waste per day at its Estrella Levante plant (Murcia), which is used to feed bacteria capable of generating a 100% biodegradable bioplastic. The next challenge is to find enough companies committed to assuming the extra cost of replacing conventional plastics with more sustainable materials. “We need a few committed companies that understand the extra cost as an investment in the benefit of society,” Aymà and Márquez (co-founders of VEnvirotech) point out to Expansión.
With the new round of funding and the momentum derived from applied research within the framework of industrial doctorates, VEnvirotech aspires to make the definitive leap to the market, reaching a turnover of seven million euros and consolidating a model based on the circular economy. Its proposal demonstrates that it is possible to reduce the environmental footprint of traditional plastics through technological innovation and close collaboration between the business and academic sectors.
