Waste Management makes strategic investment in plastics recycler

Waste Management, Inc. (Houston, TX) has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Total Energy Ventures International, an affiliate of oil and gas major Total S.A., in a $22 million round of financing for Agilyx (Portland, OR), a developer of a technology for converting waste plastic into a synthetic crude oil. Existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Saffron Hill Ventures, and Reference Capital joined in the financing round. “With these funds and strategic partners at our side, we are well-positioned to help our customers and the communities in which they operate improve the diversion and recovery of waste plastics and create new local sources of crude oil,” said Chris Ulum, Agilyx’s CEO. Tim Cesarek, managing director of the Organic Growth business at Waste Management, commented “Agilyx’s technology complements Waste Management’s advancement of thermal chemical conversion technology platforms and provides us with a viable option for processing contaminated and hard-to-recycle plastic resins and creating a high-value commodity.”