Key Note

>> 25 February 2021, 14:00 – 15:00 UTC (15:00 – 16:00 CET)

PeelPioneers: Orange success in the Circular Economy in the Interplay of Waste Management, Biotechnology and Chemistry

PeelPioneers is the first fully sustainable peel collector of the 21th century and a European success story regarding the pathway to circular economy.

In just over three years, PeelPioneers went from the technical idea at the university to the first pilot plant. The investors were won over with a compelling business plan. But how smoothly did everything go? What were the challenges? How did the team come together? And above all: what are the next big steps?

We welcome in the keynote of the PeelPioneers: Sytze van Stempvoort, CEO & CTO, and Lindy Hensen, Chief Research, Development & Technology.

The two will report on the founding history of PeelPioneers, and will pass on their experiences and recommendations.

As participant of 5th ECP, you can look forward to the first ECP keynote with three founders in an informal conversation with the discussion leader and you, the audience.

Sytze van Stempvoort

Sytze van Stempvoort is founder of PeelPioneers and is currently CEO/CTO. Sytze studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam and cofounded PeelPioneers together with Bas & Lindy in 2016. In 2018 they built the first citrus peel processing plant in a non-citrus producing country in the world! Their success led to a 10 million EUR funding round for a new factory, scheduled to open in 2021. PeelPioneers’ plan is to expand its business to other European countries, providing a clean tech solution for a growing waste stream. Sytze is responsible for technology development and is the general manager of the team.
 

Lindy Hensen

Lindy Hensen is founder of PeelPioneers and is now part of the Supervisory Board, to support the team in scaling the company. She is also founder of Tekkoo, a company funding and bringing sustainable innovations to market. As a founder of PeelPioneers, Lindy, together with her co-founders, developed a circular solution for orange peels left over after making fresh juice. PeelPioneers is now the largest producer of raw materials from citrus peels in Northwest Europe.

About

PeelPioneers processes ‘waste orange peel’ and turns this into value added resources for especially the food industry. Founded in 2016, PeelPioneers opened its first plant in 2018 which led to successive funding. In 2020 they raised 10 million EUR from a biobased consortium of investors (among which the newly established ECBF) the rapidly growing team to establish a new processing facility where capacity is expanded and the product portfolio diversified. The new plant will be processing 30.000 tons of orange peel per annum, offering a wide range of products for the food industry. The team is around 20 FTE and is actively looking to grow vertically (more value from peel) and horizontally (additional processing facilities abroad and/or different biomass streams).