Creapaper could establish as THE company for grasspaper and unique partner for retail, system gastronomy and brand owners to develop intelligent packaging solutions and help to stem the global plastic flood. We use a patented process to produce graspap, our raw material required for producing grasspaper, which helps to reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption in the global paper & packaging industry. We have already developed and placed CO2-saving grasspaper products like hygienic papers, food & carrying bags as well as single-use plastic replacements with retail clients in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Italy, thereby rapidly expanding our reach throughout Europe.
Grassfibre pulp is less expensive than wood pulp, regionally available and by the novel patented mechanical process Creapaper only needs 6 litres water and 0.2 MWh energy per tonne Grass Fibre during production. In comparison: 2.2 tonnes wood, 6 tonnes water, 1.4 MWh energy and aggressive chemical treatments are necessary to produce 1 tonne virgin wood pulp. The independent gate-to-gate LCA analysis showed, that the production of our grassfibre raw material reduces the CO2 emissions by 95% compared to wood pulp production.
To further scale up the quantities of available grasspaper in the market, Creapaper follows a pull strategy and focused marketing and sales activities on big retail, mainly food retail, and on global brands. Creapaper develops individual mock-up and marketing ideas which seamlessly fit into the ecological mission statements and the CO2 saving goals of global brands. This project has a huge impact on Creapaper, as it contributes to our strategy to vertically evolve in the supply chain. We advance from a pure grassfibre raw material supplier for paper mills, into grasspaper and grasspaper products manufacturing. To penetrate the market and develop the grasspaper market into a mass market, we provide a full-service partnership to all stakeholders in the paper industry. This already began by qualifying and advising paper mills individually for grasspaper production and - during this project – is continued in the modification and individual development of paper converting plants at paper converters and packaging manufacturers. By this measure, we generate applications for grasspaper products and as result boost grassfibre demand.
The EIC support will allow a market introduction of first grasspaper products and have a huge impact and a much higher demand for grassfibre raw material also contributing to fast increasing revenues.
Currently, grasspaper products consist of up to 50% grass combined with virgin pulp or with recycled paper. We want to follow the market demand and further increase the share of grassfibre in our grasspaper. With grasspaper products going into the mass market, Creapaper helps European brands in becoming eco-friendlier and more sustainable, as well as contributes to a clean and sustainable society.
The positive impact of the project is also reflected in the awards received by Creapaper in 2022.
Following the € 20M series B round with a € 3M equity investment by the EIC Fund, Creapaper is proud to be listed among the EIC Green Centaurs in the EIC Impact Report 2022.
After having received the Red Herring Top 100 Europe as well as the Red Herring Top 100 North America, the jury of the renowned Red Herring business magazine once again honoured creapaper with the Red Herring Top 100 Global Award. To be awarded a prize by the Red Herring jury, Creapaper had to demonstrate solid market maturity in addition to its innovation potential. Grasspaper is widely used in graphic applications as well as for primary and secondary packaging. Companies like Rewe, Edeka, Coop, TeeGschwendner and many others already rely on grasspaper.
