Turkish waste management company boosts Spain’s waste infrastructure with R&D investments
09 Jun 2023 --- Fazla has raised a US$6 million investment led by Esor Investment and venture capital firm 212 to support Spain with its waste management.
The Turkish waste management company gained a US$43 million valuation. Fazla provides a platform for businesses to manage their excess inventories with a return monetarily via donations to food banks, reuse in animal feed or recycling.
The B Corp firm aims to reduce waste and waste-borne carbon emissions across the supply chain. It reportedly saved over 58,000 metric tons of food from being wasted and prevented 83,000 metric tons of carbon emissions to date.
“We dominate the waste management sector with our wide range of technology networks. With this investment, we’ll continue our R&D investments to strengthen the solutions we have developed and expand our product portfolio,” says Arda Eren, CTO at Fazla.
Cleaning up
The US$6 million investment will increase Fazla’s capacity for waste management in Spain by conducting R&D to improve the range of the company’s services.
Fazla reports that globally, one in three items of waste generated yearly consists of packaging materials. Additionally, out of the seven billion metric tons of plastic waste generated since plastics conception, only 10% has been recycled.
Fazla raises a US$6 million investment to put toward waste management in Spain. Some packaging companies have been implementing fiber-based solutions instead of plastics to increase their environmental sustainability reputation. However, Fazla writes that to produce a single sheet of paper, 2 to 13 liters of water is utilized.
Fazla uses an “impact-oriented” recycling service to combat the issue of packaging waste. The company brings businesses’ packaging waste – such as plastic, wood, aluminum or composite – into the circular economy by “providing financial advantages to businesses while transforming their environmental impact into positive.”
“As Fazla, we not only carry the mission of reducing waste and pioneering the waste management sector but also be the change maker to create impact for the world, transform the existing business models in that way and stand as an example for youth,” says Olcay Silahlı, CEO of Fazla.
“In this perspective, we are an engineering powerhouse, creating tailor-made waste management solutions in line with the local needs, the laws and regulations, and the scope of our partners.”
Waste management services
In the first year of its launch, Fazla received direct UN support via its development program.
The company has also worked with companies such as Migros, Metro, Nestlé, Pepsi and Danone to manage their overproduction. The company analyzes and classifies areas of a client’s surplus production utilizing the Food Recovery Hierarchy stages model by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Fazla offers seven primary services for its customers, including a shopping market, donation collection, generating animal feed, recycling, measuring companies’ waste, monetizing unsold items and sustainability consulting.
“As a deep tech organization, we develop all our technology-based waste management solutions in-house and connect all our seven products with a holistic approach, increasing our impact exponentially with our data-oriented 360-degree perspective, where traceability and scalability are at the forefront,” explains Eren.
By Sabine Waldeck
