Circularise, the Dutch blockchain sustainability startup, announced an €11 million ($11 million) funding round led by Brightlands Venture Partners, in addition to Asahi Kasei, Neste and existing investor 4impact Capital. In 2020, the company obtained €1.5 million in funding from the European Commission under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.

Circularise already has numerous projects with renowned clients, including Asahi Kasei, Covestro, Domo Chemicals, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Neste, Philips Domestic Appliances, and Porsche.

The startup uses blockchain for its two supply chain solutions. One is for product passports that provide provenance and carbon footprint assessments in supply chains. This uses the company’s Smart Questioning technology based on Zero Knowledge Proofs to enable communication without sharing data, identity or position in the supply chain. For example, it is possible to ask about the carbon footprint of an item without revealing all suppliers in the chain.

A second solution is for the so-called mass balancing. Many manufacturing processes use inputs (raw materials) that are more difficult to identify. For example, recycled materials can be mixed with fossil fuels during production. One way to measure the proportion recycled is to say that X proportion by weight is based on recycled materials. It is a practical methodology that is considered controversial in some quarters.

Circularise announced a mass balance project in September with ten companies, including Philips, Marubeni and Shell.

Some blockchain traceability and sustainability startups use private permissioned blockchains, but Circularise uses public blockchain. However, the company is not yet ready to reveal which blockchain and plans a future announcement on the subject.

In addition to a European head office in the Netherlands, the company also has a presence in Japan and its team now numbers 40 people.

“This funding round allows us to scale our business operations, products, R&D and expand our international team,” said Circularise co-founder Jordi de Vos. “It will not only accelerate our growth as a leading provider of supply chain traceability software, but will also support the transition to a circular economy on a global scale.”