Less plastic, more future is the motto of Nature Compound GmbH from Schwerte. In order to promote sustainability and counteract the growing environmental impact, the company is replacing petroleum-based granulates with bio-based alternatives. With the help of the NRW.Europa team at ZENIT, the start-up received funding for the construction of a production facility via the Regional Economic Development Programme RWP of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The team was also able to provide support in other areas.

The construction site at Wandhofener Bruch in Schwerte is buzzing with activity, as production of bio-based plastics and granulates is set to start in the fourth quarter of 2023 on an area of around 3,500 square metres. Compounding will start with a small plant, which will later be supplemented by a larger one. This also applies to the current workforce of eight employees, which is set to grow to 25 by mid-2024.

‘99 per cent of global plastic products are still made from fossil raw materials, and around 330,000 tonnes of microplastics are released into the environment in Germany alone. We want to change that,’ says Niclas Beutler, describing the motivation behind his start-up. With the bio-based, degradable granulate made from almost 70 per cent renewable raw materials, the company wants to make a contribution to combating the global pollution of forests and oceans. The target group includes producers from the food and pharmaceutical industries who manufacture dosing aids or other thin-walled products. One cooperation partner is Meding GmbH from Halver in the Sauerland region. The biodegradable granulate is based on cellulose, paper fibres, starch, chalk and kaolin.

The key success factor of the granulate is its usability in existing hardware, i.e. the customers' plastics processing machines. ‘We see ourselves as pioneers of a progressive bridging technology for responsible companies in the plastics processing industry that want to improve their future viability by using an ecologically valuable granulate,’ says Managing Director Niclas Beutler, summarising the company's own claim.
 

Support from ZENIT and the Enterprise Europe Network

The NRW.Europa team first met company founder and CEO Niclas Beutler in 2021, following a recommendation from the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid, a member of the NRW.Europa stakeholder network. It quickly became clear that multiple areas of interest were relevant to both parties—primarily business start-up consultancy and strategic advice on access to financing, funding, and markets. To apply for an RWP grant, the company's SME status first had to be clarified, a process in which the NRW.Europa team was able to assist. Nature Compound is investing approximately 4.8 million euros in its production facility, with 35 percent of this amount subsidized between March 2023 and early 2025.

Regarding sustainability, Niclas Beutler has also made use of the Circular Economy Online Check developed by ZENIT, network contacts within the team, and sector-specific research. In March, Nature Compound was one of nine start-ups and scale-ups from North Rhine-Westphalia selected—based on NRW.Europa’s recommendations—to participate in the matchmaking at the Sweden Innovation Days 2023. Sixty well-known multinational companies from a range of industries engaged in more than 400 discussions with approximately 180 start-ups over the course of the three-day digital event.

Focus for the Coming Months: Expansion and Market Definition

In addition to completing the production facility, the next key focus for the company will be defining new, including international, markets—a prospect that the NRW.Europa team is already looking forward to.

"The application of the Circular Economy Online Check is incredibly straightforward and has given me a broad insight into the different areas of circular business practices. Practically all business operations are thoroughly examined. It is a valuable tool for a manufacturing SME. The tailored support provided by the EEN has been and continues to be extremely beneficial in our company’s growth. This kind of assistance is essential for SMEs like Nature Compound."
—Niclas Beutler, CEO of Nature Compound GmbH

For its development of biobased plastics, Nature Compound received an award in early 2022 as part of the ZENIT Network’s Innovation Prize and has since been a member of the network.

Contact NRW.Europa:
ZENIT GmbH / Enterprise Europe Network
for North Rhine-Westphalia NRW.Europa
Michael Nolden / Johannes Böhmer
Phone: 0208 30004-68 / -11
Email: Michael.Nolden@zenit.de

Contact Nature Compound:
https://nature-compound.com/
Kurz-Video zur Innovation auf Youtube