Canada-based natural fibre composites manufacturer INCA Renewable Technologies has secured a $40M USD funding commitment from The New York Family Office to support the company’s hemp manufacturing.
“This is an important milestone for our company,” said INCA’s Chairman and CEO, David Saltman. “This round of funding will enable us to commercialize our line of hemp-based, advanced bio-composites for Toyota North America, Winnebago Industries and Gurit as well as to move forward with construction of our hemp fibre processing facility in Western Canada.”
Mr Saltman says completion of the project will see the firm becoming the first vertically integrated natural fibre composites company in the world.
INCA has been producing bio-composite auto interiors that make cars lighter, safer and more energy efficient for some time. It’s also using hemp fibre to design RV sidewalls and boat cores that are cost competitive and recyclable. INCA will acquire waste hemp biomass from large growers, then refine it into long fiber, short fiber, and hurd (the woody core of the plant) and manufacture its full bio-composites product line.
“Our ability to transform a low-cost raw material into a set of patented high value products, will enable our customers to produce lighter, stronger, lower cost and far more environmentally sustainable products,” said Mr. Saltman. ” We think it is a winning value proposition.”
Commenting on its support of INCA, The New York Family Office’s CEO said the firm getting behind the innovative technology is not only good business, but good for the planet.
INCA has been attracting significant support as it ramps up.
Earlier this year, INCA was awarded CAD $10 million by the government of the Canadian province of Alberta to construct and operate a “first-of-kind” commercial facility manufacturing a sustainable, advanced bio-composite material created from hemp stalk. The funding is being provided under Emissions Reduction Alberta’s (ERA’s) Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund.
Last year, INCA received a grant of up to CAD $400,000 from the Canadian Government to go towards funding construction of a new $72-million hemp processing facility in Vegreville.
Fibre from the industrial hemp plant can be used in everything from stuffing furnishings to high quality textiles and high-tech composite materials. You can learn how hemp fiber is produced here.
