WILDPLASTIC®

Regenerative ownership and finance for a regenerative business model

In a nutshell

WILDPLASTIC® was founded in 2019 by seven entrepreneurs with the goal to free the environment from plastic waste by structurally changing the way we think about plastic. In close cooperation with organizations and NGOs, the startup works globally to collect wild plastic from nature, landfills, and illegal dumpsites. Together, they ensure better working conditions for people working in the highly stigmatized sector. In spring 2019, WILDPLASTIC® started producing and selling the first trash bag made out of 100% recycled and formerly wild plastic.

The company’s mission is not to produce trash bags or plastic packaging. Instead, WILDPLASTIC® seeks to clean up the planet by regarding wild plastic not as waste but as a resource with which they create new products. Their motto is to build a system on circularity and minimize one-sided extraction – an approach mirrored in their ownership and financing model.

To guard the focus on long-term system change, WILDPLASTIC® was founded as a steward-owned company. Opting for the golden share model for steward-ownership, 1% of the voting shares are held by the Purpose Foundation to protect the principles of steward-ownership. Over two financing rounds, a diverse group of investors (from family office to impact investors and Purpose Ventures) provided WILDPLASTIC® with non-extractive, mission-aligned growth capital using 1) convertible loans, 2) subsidiary loans and 3) redeemable equity to help the business grow whilst ensuring that the purpose of the business always comes first.