The Finnish-Swiss biotechnology company secured €28 million in a new capital funding round. The funds come from the strategic investor BW Group, one of the world’s leading maritime groups in the tanker, gas, and offshore segments. With this new investment, Ductor will develop up to 200 new bio-gas and sustainable fertilizer projects in Europe and North America in the next three years.
The new project will use agricultural or fish waste to create two separate products: renewable biogas and sus-tainable organic fertilizer. This circular economy model will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from both the energy and agriculture sectors. Building the new facilities will be a clear move towards making the EU’s econo-my more sustainable, as stated in the new European Green Deal, with the goal of turning the climate and envi-ronmental challenges into opportunities.
The new facilities will be built in Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Norway, and the United States, among others. They are planned to be in operation within a few years.
“As company owners we need to push and do our utmost to counter climate change. Ductor’s goal is to use the circular economy as a weapon in this fight and now, with the help of BW Group, we can speed up our operations,” said Mr. Ari Mokko, Founder and CEO of Ductor.
BW Group will become a major shareholder in Ductor as well as a strategic partner. Mr. Andreas Beroutsos, a senior executive at BW and now a Board Member of Ductor, added:
“BW Group has been focused on the energy transition for some time, with prior investments in bat-teries, renewables, water treatment, and other technologies to address global challenges. Ductor has a unique solution producing two valuable outputs from waste: biofuels and organic fertilizers. We are delighted to be partnering with Ari Mokko, Ductor’s visionary founder, his team and their ex-isting investors to help Ductor grow and make a positive contribution to resolving some of today’s environmental, energy, land and food challenges.”
Last year, Ductor opened its first operational sustainable fertilizer and biogas facility in Mexico and contracted for three new facilities in Poland. The company has around 75 new projects under development in Europe and North America.
An urgent need for sustainable agriculture
The transition to sustainable agriculture is driven by new technologies, research and innovation. This “new agri-culture” will not only slow down climate change, but also provide sustainable economic rewards for farmers, by creating new business opportunities with a circular economy. Ductor’s fermentation technology converts agricul-tural waste, such as chicken manure, into efficient organic fertilizer for large-scale farming and biogas in the form of biomethane to replace fossil fuel energy. Healthier soils and regenerative farming also contribute to less polluted waters.
“Ductor is committed to increasing agricultural biodiversity, enriching soils, improving water-sheds, and enhancing ecosystem services. We need to capture carbon in soil and above-ground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation. Our job is to help nature do its job better by transforming organic waste into carbon-negative fertilizers and renewable en-ergy,” said Mr. Mokko.
Ductor was founded in 2009 and received Phase 2 Grant from the European Innovation Council in 2015. Today the company operates globally in America, Europe, and Asia.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.