Polish Contec raises €10M for the processing of used tires

The Szczecin-based Contec S.A., a startup recovering industrial raw materials from used tires, has raised €10 million from HiTech ASI and the Warsaw Equity Group. These funds will be used to expand the efficiency of Contec’s plant almost threefold.

• Contec S.A. specializes in the processing of car tires into full-value raw materials reused in industry. Since 2017, the company has been optimizing its Molten technology together with the Warsaw University of Technology. The technology is based on a mixture of liquid salts to heat up the reactor in which the pyrolysis process takes place.
• The startup claims that its products reduce the carbon footprint more than five times when comparing them to conventional fossil fuel-based raw materials. To date, Contec is an active participant in the circular economy.
• The lead investor of the round is HiTech ASI, which provides capital to technology companies at various stages of development. It is managed by VINCI – a subsidiary of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The second investor is Contec’s major shareholder, the Warsaw Equity Group, a leading private investment company that recently led a €4.3 million round for Katowice-based software company 3Soft for its retail forecast platform Occubee.

“Contec is a venture building project of the Warsaw Equity Group, which has been implemented since 2015. After a period of intensive R&D, which resulted in stable and scalable technology, the company enters the intensive commercialization phase. Therefore, Contec’ needs funds and partners to increase its production capacity and, consequently, be able to respond to the demand reported by companies from the chemical and rubber sectors,”

Przemek Danowski, Managing Partner at Warsaw Equity Group, comments.

• Contec will use the fresh funds to increase the processing capacity of its Szczecin plant. Once completed, the plant will be able to nominally process 33,000 tons of used tires per year. In addition, the modernization will increase the production capacity of post-pyrolysis oil and recovered carbon black.