Rome, 30 October 2024 – Waxy, an innovative start-up operating in the design, construction and distribution of technologies for the sanitisation of food liquids and products, closed a 1,350,000 euro funding round for the development of an innovative system to ensure the food safety of products by preserving the composition, taste, aroma and function of food liquids and guaranteeing considerable savings in terms of energy and water consumption. CDP Venture Capital, Granarolo and Sud Speed Up were the investors.

Operating since 2021 as a Benefit Company, Waxy has distinguished itself in the development of systems to reduce the amount of water used in the pasteurisation process in the food industry, working on systems that allow 90% less water consumption than the conventional pasteurisation method and developing solutions that at the same time allow achieving energy savings of at least 20% during the food sanitisation process.

Waxy is the first Italian spin-off to have two different universities as investors, the University of Milan and Sapienza University of Rome.  The start-up's goal in the coming months will be to scale up this system for use on a wide variety of food matrices, food fluids (brines, dairy liquids, etc.) and liquids used or usable in food technology, ingredients and supplements.

Resources from CDP Venture Capital, Granarolo and Sud Speed Up will enable Waxy to develop research and boost scalability.

“We’re pleased to have achieved this result with CDP Venture Capital, Granarolo S.p.A. and Sud Speed Up. For us, this is a result that consolidates the research and innovation work done in previous years and we consider it a starting point for the development of this technology and the growth of the company”, said Mauro Fontana and Massimo Revello, members of Waxy’s scientific and administrative board. This was echoed by Sergio Mangiavillano, who oversaw the operation for Sud Speed Up. "I'm really excited about the successful outcome of the round and have high expectations for the future of a company like Waxy, which offers great innovative value".

"It’s increasingly necessary to establish close ties with innovative start-ups that help boost production performance in the factory, both in terms of efficiency and environmental sustainability. We’re confident that Waxy will be able to achieve the goals it has set for itself, and for our part we will provide financial support and know-how. In fact, we will open our plants to experimentation, thus providing expertise and machinery to test the effectiveness of the solution in real time”, commented Riccardo Piaggi, President of the Agrofood Business Innovation Center accelerator and HR, Organisation and IT Director of Granarolo S.p.A..

The funds raised will be invested to speed up the production and supply of the system and to make it available to all interested producers, from small farms with an attached production space, dairy or agri-food company to multinational industries, to facilitate new hires and to internationalise the company