Agilyx Raises $22M to Convert Plastics Into Oil

Agilyx Corp has raised $22 million to finance its technology, which converts difficult-to-recycle waste plastic into synthetic crude oil. 

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) led the Series B round and were joined by Total Energy Ventures International, an affiliate of oil and gas major Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT). Waste Management (NYSE: WM) also partcipated. 

Existing investors, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, Saffron Hill Ventures, and Reference Capital invested follow-on funds.

Agilyx says its technology offers the first opportunity to economically convert  difficult-to-recycle waste plastics.

The process could provide another revenue stream for Waste Management, which is also investing in technologies to convert organic waste in fertilizer and sustainable chemicals.

Agilyx’s facility, near Portland, Oregon, is the largest commercially operational waste plastic to synthetic crude oil facility in North America. It has the first refinery off take agreement in the industry.

Agilyx says it’s produced and sold over 120,000 gallons of crude oil, and recovered over 1 million pounds of plastic that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated, while providing cleantech jobs and a new domestic source of crude oil.

"Waste Management wants to maximize the value of the materials it manages," said Tim Cesarek, managing director of Organic Growth at Waste Management. "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 difficult to recycle waste plastics while creating a high value commodity."