Nature's Principles raises €500k to develop a new, more sustainable lactic acid production process

Nature’s Principles, a TU Delft spin-off, has raised €500k to further develop and commercialize its innovative process that enables a more sustainable and cost-effective production of lactic acid.

Current production processes for lactic acid use sugars, which have to be sterilized and refined in order to be used. This is an expensive process and costs a lot of energy. Nature’s Principles has developed a novel production process to produce lactic acid from waste biomass, which has a lower price, requires less fertilizers, water, and arable land compared to conventional feedstocks.

The investment originates from SHIFT’s Thematic Technology Transfer (TTT) Circular fund and angel investor Jeroen van Rotterdam. The investment will be used to expand the team and test a larger scale pilot production. In the pilot, Nature’s Principles will convert European sugar beets into lactic acid, validating its patented fermentation process with a 1,000x larger scale. The market for lactic acid is growing rapidly, mainly driven by its potential as the basis for more sustainable alternatives to oil-based chemicals, such as bioplastic ingredients. Nature’s Principles’ mixed-culture fermentation process enables the use of more sustainable feedstocks such as sugar beet as its inputs, providing a cost-effective end product.

Founders Jules Rombouts and Jan Pieter van Tilburg are “very happy to have SHIFT and Jeroen on board. With their investment and expertise Nature’s Principles will be well positioned to take the next step and make fermentation-based biochemicals.”

‘Nature’s Principle perfectly fits the scope of our TTT fund” says Bart Budde, Investment Manager at SHIFT. “The process that Nature’s Principles is developing has the potential to significantly decrease the environmental footprint of the production of lactic acid and lactic acid derivatives. Nature’s Principles could therefore contribute to the transition towards a more sustainable and biobased economy.” 

Nature’s Principles is an example of what the TTT fund is aiming to achieve. The TU Delft spin-off has been backed by the RVO supported TTT Circular Technology program through the ideation and proof of concept phase. This investment from the TTT fund will kickstart the next phase of the company.

 
For more information

info@naturesprinciples.eu