After securing licences to roll out its technology in North America and Africa, NSW-based waste-to-energy startup ARC Ento Tech has raised $5 million to establish three state-of-the-art plants at landfill sites in Greater Sydney to prove the commercial viability of its innovative system.
The capital raise, led by MCCI Corporation, brings total funding secured by ARC Ento Tech to $6.25 million since it was founded in 2020, giving the company a valuation of $20 million.
The company’s technology, known as the ARC Process, is said to efficiently transform all types of waste into eco-friendly, marketable products with environmental and economic benefits such as high-grade insect meal, high-nutrient fertiliser and an innovative industrial reductant which can replace coking coal.
The ARC Process, which has a patent pending, comprises biological and mechanical processes that convert mixed solid waste into marketable commodities.
“This funding is a signal of confidence in the commercial viability of solutions within Australia’s renewable energy industries and a huge step forward for ARC Ento Tech and the ARC Process,” says Ramon Atayde, co-founder and managing director of ARC Ento Tech.
“We’re proving that waste doesn’t have to be a problem; it can be a solution. By transforming waste into valuable sustainable energy and resources, we’re tackling monumental global issues like carbon emissions and landfill while building a business model that can be implemented by industry and governments globally.
“With a track record of strong financial backing and partnerships in North America and Africa already, we’re excited to soon roll out the solution on home soil too and lead the way in creating a more sustainable future for us all.”
ARC Ento Tech, which is based at Somersby on the NSW Central Coast, has secured a licencing agreement with private company Entoq to use its technology in Canada for North America and Ento Tech Africa to roll out the technology in Africa, starting with Kenya.
The company says its technology offers a sustainable solution to the global waste crisis that can support governments and industries worldwide to reduce landfill reliance, address carbon emissions and establish circular economies.
“Compared to similar waste-to-energy options currently in the market, Arc Ento Tech offers a complete approach to waste processing by recovering, reforming and repurposing all the elements in the waste stream,” says the company.
“Traditional waste-to-energy technologies, on the other hand, primarily focus on incinerating waste to generate power, which is wasteful since it negates the value of the different elements in the waste stream to support other industries.”
ARC Ento Tech, which was founded by Ramon and Ricky Atayde, is listed on the secondary trading platform Primary Markets.
The company is aiming to solve a global problem which is estimated to comprise 2.12 billion tonnes of waste dumped annually, leading to a waste industry worth about $1.7 trillion.
ARC Ento Tech estimates that Australia generated 67 million tonnes of mixed solid waste in 2018, with 68 per cent of this buried in landfill.
An information memorandum released by the company for the latest capital raise reveals that it plans to use $800,000 of the funds to expand the in-house plant capacity of its existing Somersby facility and the balance for the construction of two new commercial plants in Sydney to process mixed solid waste.
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