Ethiopian plastic recycling startup Kubik secures new funding, plans to license its technology

Kubik, a plastic recycling startup, has raised a $1.9 million seed round, months after announcing its initial equity investment. The startup’s latest investment comes from African Renaissance Partners, an East African venture capital firm; Endgame Capital, an investor supportive of climate change technologies; and King Philanthropies, a climate and extreme poverty investor.

The new capital comes as the startup expands its operations in Ethiopia after launching its factory in Addis Ababa, where it transforms plastic waste into interlocking construction materials like bricks, columns, beams and studs. Kubik co-founder and CEO Kidus Asfaw told TechCrunch that the startup intends to double its operations in Addis Ababa as it sets the stage for pan-African growth from 2025.

Kubik’s approach is to recycle plastic waste into “low-carbon, sustainable and affordable” building materials using proprietary technology, which Asfaw says they will license for faster pan-African growth and, at term, global growth.

“What we want is to solve the problems of cities and that is why we are thinking about making our economic model truly circular. The way we have implemented our business strategy is that we are now in the focused phase of proving this model here in Ethiopia. We will expand it to a few more markets to prove the diversity of context in which this business model can work. But over time, what we really want to do is become a company that licenses this technology,” said Asfaw, who co-founded Kubik with Penda Marre in 2021.

“This is how we think we can really scale.” It’s not about having factories all over the world, it’s about getting this industry to embrace a new way of making materials on a global scale,” he said.

He said their product allows developers to erect walls without the need for cement, aggregates or steel, speeding up construction and reducing the cost by “at least 40% less per square meter”. Cost is a major barrier to construction and the availability of affordable or cheaper construction materials provides a better option for developers of affordable housing projects.

Asfaw said Kubik’s materials passed safety tests carried out by the European standards agency Intertek, which checked, among other things, strength, toxicity and flammability.

“We don’t want to sell something that is harmful to human beings. We only started sales when these reports were available,” he said.

The startup currently recycles 5,000 kilograms (and can process 45,000 at capacity) of plastic waste per day. It has signed partnerships with companies and the municipality of Addis Ababa for a regular supply of plastic waste. In the short term, it plans to diversify its products to cover paving stones and flooring.

The world is estimated to produce 430 million tonnes of plastic per year, two-thirds of which is for short-term use. Clearly, the world is choking on plastic waste, and while the situation is exacerbated by consumerist trends in developed countries, in regions facing rapid urbanization and economic growth like African cities, waste plastics are also spiraling out of control, requiring urgent responses. In the coming days, startups like Kubik will play a leading role in providing sustainable solutions to this menace.