- The venture debt financing arrangement will support a recognised French tech player experiencing strong growth in the circular economy.
- It will contribute to resource conservation and pollution reduction in waste treatment.
- It will also strengthen corporate competitiveness by facilitating the supply of composite materials that are essential to many sectors.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Fairmat, a French company specialised in recycling carbon fibre composite materials, have signed a €25 million venture loan agreement. Founded in 2020, the company is a pioneer in recycling carbon composite, and has developed a recycling process that is almost carbon-neutral and saves four times the CO2 compared to producing new composite.
This initial EIB financing arrangement for Fairmat is part of a total fundraising package of €51.5 million. It consists of the EIB venture debt loan of €25 million and capital contributions totalling €26.6 million from Bpifrance through its Large Venture fund, Slate Venture Capital, the family office Cape Capital, and existing investors Singular, Temasek, CNP and Pictet Group. This is Fairmat’s third round of fundraising, after the first round of €8.6 million in September 2021, followed by a Series A round of €34 million in November 2022.
This EIB investment will enable Fairmat to accelerate its industrialisation process, strengthen its presence in the United States and further diversify into new sectors that increasingly use composite materials. Fairmat is already well established in the sports sector, which uses material recycled from waste from the aeronautics, automotive and wind industries to make running equipment and snowshoes. It is continuing to branch out into in wider industries like mobility, electronics and energy.
The company has secured 2 900 tonnes of material per year, and contracted for €50 million in annual revenue in the growing market for sustainable materials. It was estimated at €330 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach €640 billion by 2033. Demand is driven by manufacturers’ need to find efficient, recyclable solutions that do not come with additional environmental costs.
Industrialising composite recycling at Fairmat relies on data, AI and robotics to optimise each batch of recycled material in real time. Its two plants – in Bouguenais in the agglomeration of Nantes in France, and Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States – use sensors and predictive algorithms to improve production, reduce losses and accelerate the adoption of industrial processes.
The EIB is actively supporting the transition to a circular economy through the recycling and recovery of waste, which is rising continuously on the global level. In the European Union, people and businesses produce more than 2 billion tonnes of waste per year – 4.8 tonnes per capita – mainly from construction, mining and industry. Since 2020, the EIB has devoted around €5 billion to co-financing circular economy projects in various sectors.
Fairmat founder and CEO Benjamin Saada explained, “Materials are the basis of all industrial production. Disrupting this industry means having a colossal impact, for both the planet and the consumer. In just three years, we have achieved outstanding market validations from the largest European and American companies in the field of sport. With this round of fundraising, we have all the levers needed to realise our vision of delivering on a large scale, accelerating our international expansion and achieving our goal of creating the world’s first circular supply chain.”
EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle added, “Supporting the circular economy is crucial for Europe’s energy transition and autonomy. Under Fairmat’s highly innovative model, high-value recycled materials can be recovered at a real environmental benefit compared to current practices, especially landfills and incinerating waste. It also has a positive impact on companies’ competitiveness, helping them to secure supplies of composite materials that are essential in many sectors. That is why the EIB is delighted to support this project, which combines a sustainable approach to materials recovery with a successful business model.”
Background information
EIB
The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. Built around eight core priorities, we finance investments that contribute to EU policy objectives by bolstering climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, high-impact investments outside the European Union, and the capital markets union.
The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF), signed nearly €89 billion in new financing for over 900 high-impact projects in 2024, boosting Europe’s competitiveness and security.
All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement, as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap. Almost 60% of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.
Fostering market integration and mobilising investment, the Group supported a record of over €100 billion in new investment for Europe’s energy security in 2024 and mobilised €110 billion in growth capital for startups, scale-ups and European pioneers. Approximately half of the EIB's financing within the European Union is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average.
High-quality, up-to-date photos of our headquarters for media use are available here.
About Fairmat
Founded in 2020 by Benjamin Saada, Fairmat is an answer to a major challenge: the explosion of waste and the scarcity of high-performance materials. Thanks to its deeptech approach, Fairmat is not just able to recycle waste, but also to disrupt industrial processes to bring the materials cycle full circle. Its factories in France and the United States are intelligent, agile and automated, using robotics, software, AI and machine learning for ultra-efficient, scalable production. With its new patented Infinity Recycling technology, Fairmat goes even further, enabling almost infinite recycling through a patented cold plasma process that recovers carbon fibres intact.