On 2018, the University of Milan Bicocca settled up the “University of Crowdfunding” (https://unimib.produzionidalbasso.com/) project, which makes a crowdfunding platform available to the entire university community. It is a new path to support the ideas and projects that are born in the University. Galatea Bio Tech Srl participated, ranking first, in the second call with a project entitled: “IS IT EASY TO SAY BIOPLASTIC, BUT 100% BIOPLASTIC?”
The challenge to face
The plastics industry traditionally requires the modification of chemical polymers using the compounding technique, which involves blending different percentages of other chemical compounds (additives) to obtain the characteristics of the desired material. These range from (i) mineral fillers as a filler for heat resistance to (ii) blend with other polymers to increase their hardness and elasticity characteristics. Even today bioplastics still contain till 5% of chemicals additives
FIRST CROWDFUNDING
In September 2020 on the platform produzioni dal basso the crowdfunding campaign called “100% BIOPLASTIC” started, together with the support of Corepla. The project obtained the support of more than 100 people and collected more than 12.000 euro for the development of plastic materials 100% biodegradable.
EQUITY CROWDFUNDING
After the first successful crowdfunding, the 3rd of May 2021 Galatea Bio Tech launched the equity crowdfunding campaign on the platform Opstart.
This crowdfunding campaign it was possible to support the two research lines of Galatea Bio Tech aimed at the development of fully sustainable and renewable bioplastics. The first project is a long term investment and is about the exploitation of a Galatea Bio Tech patent describing a method for the production of PLA by a biotechnological process. The second project is about the development of innovative blendings 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable.
The crowdfunding campaign collected 600.000 euro. An important capital increase that will be used for the development of new sustainable bioplastics.