German start-up traceless (Hamburg; www.traceless.eu), which makes sustainable products such as flexible film, a mouldable polymer, and a sprayable coating, has received a EUR 2.42m grant and equity investment from the European Innovation Council (EIC). The company said the funding will help it bring its naturally compostable biomaterial to market and support its goal of substituting plastics and bioplastics in products that end up in the environment, and it plans to build a demonstration production plant.

In July 2021, COO Johanna Baare spoke to Plasteurope.com about introducing the first products to the market by the beginning of next year (see Plasteurope.com of 27.07.2021).

The German company says its materials are made using non-chemically modified or synthetically polymerised natural polymers, so they are expected not to fall under the EU plastics directive while having competitive prices with virgin materials. Since its founding in September 2020, traceless has developed several prototypes, like a shipping bag for e-commerce company Otto (Hamburg; www.ottogroup.com).