CARBIOS Receives € 1.6 Million from Bpifrance for Completing the Third Development Stage of the THANAPLAST™ Project

Regulatory News:

CARBIOS (Paris:ALCRB) (NYSE Alternext in Paris: ALCRB), an innovative green chemistry company specializing in breakthrough technologies dedicated to the recovery of plastic waste and the production of bio-polymers, announces having received € 1.6 million from Bpifrance for completing the third development stage of its collaborative project THANAPLAST™, spearheaded by CARBIOS.

This payment is the result of having achieved the targets initially set under the THANAPLAST™ project for the bioprocesses developed at a pre-pilot stage, including biodegradation, bio-recycling and bioproduction of PLA. During this third key stage, CARBIOS announced multiple successes in the development of its technologies, in particular in the bio-depolymerization and the biodegradation of PLA. With these results, CARBIOS also announced the launch of its plastics processing pilot plant and a new collaboration with CRITT Bio-Industries in Toulouse, enabling to pursue respectively the development of CARBIOS’s biodegradation and biorecycling processes.

THANAPLAST™ is a collaborative Research & Development project initiated and directed by CARBIOS and supported by Bpifrance within the framework of an ISI grant (Industrial Strategic Innovation). CARBIOS is the lead manager of the project and has brought together several academic and industrial partners under this umbrella (the CNRS/University of Poitiers, the INRA/TWB, Deinove, Limagrain Céréales Ingredients and the Groupe Barbier). This structuring project, launched in 2012 and carried out over 5 years, is based on five key stages, each corresponding to successive steps so to achieve the industrialization stage at the term of the 5-year period. 60 scientific researchers have been working exclusively on the bioprocesses developed by CARBIOS since 2012.

With a global budget of € 22 million over 5 years, including € 15 million directly raised by CARBIOS, financing support from Bpifrance to THANAPLAST™ accounts for € 9.6 million, of which € 6.8 million are directly allocated to CARBIOS. To date, CARBIOS has received € 5.3 million and is slated to collect € 1.5 million from Bpifrance at the completion of future development stages.

"Once more, Bpifrance expresses its confidence in the running of the THANAPLAST™ project. We have been a leader in the field by initiating and consolidating a public/private partnership that brings together the top French talent working on the subject. The major results obtained by the THANAPLAST™ project’s consortium validate the potential synergies between the academic and industrial worlds. CARBIOS also reaffirms the relevance and efficiency of its upstream collaborative research model which enables to respect the progress and timeframe of this project,” concluded Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of CARBIOS.

About CARBIOS

CARBIOS is a young, innovative green chemistry company, whose mission is to find biological solutions to the environmental and sustainable development issues faced by industrial businesses today. CARBIOS acquired the rights to research that was conducted over a number of years by various public and private sector laboratories. By leveraging the unique properties of biological catalysts (enzymes), it has used this research as the foundation for developing innovative industrial bioprocesses that optimize the technical, economic and environmental performance of polymers (thermoplastic materials and synthetic or food-based fibers). The company has focused its efforts on a strategic application sector: plastics. CARBIOS’ growth strategy is based on a clear business model of industrial value creation that targets attractive markets, develops innovative and competitive bioprocesses and licenses them to major industrial stakeholders for commercialization. CARBIOS benefits from the financial support of the leading European venture capital firm Truffle Capital. Carbios was founded in 2011 and has been managed, since its inception, by the Holding Incubatrice Chimie Verte fund. CARBIOS was granted the label "Young Innovative Company” by Bpifrance (former OSEO) and is eligible for investments by private equity mutual funds (FCPIs).

For more information, please visit: www.carbios.fr.

CARBIOS is eligible for the PEA-PME, a government program allowing French residents investing in SMEs to benefit from income tax rebates.

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