Wavemaker Impact commits $525K to agritech startup WasteX

WasteX, the first venture out of Wavemaker Impact‘s climate-tech venture building program, has launched to help agricultural producers in Southeast Asia convert biomass waste into higher-value products that help fight climate change. Wavemaker Impact committed $525,000 as an initial investment in the company.

WasteX is looking to tackle the problem of 3.5 billion tons of agricultural processing waste globally – that is dumped, burnt, or sold cheaply – by converting it to upgraded products with major financial, operational, and carbon benefits.

The company provides an end-to-end solution to agricultural producers – from selecting the right technology, its deployment, and operational support to the certification for carbon credits and facilitation of the sale and/or application of the higher-value products, such as biochar or black soldier flies.

The early assessment of the opportunity comes with a potential market of more than $150 billion in GMV for the upgraded products and more than 700 million metric tons in GHG reduction potential.

The venture was born out of Wavemaker Impact’s 4-month-long venture building process, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia with a pure climate tech focus.

The team reviewed multiple problems and opportunities in land use, agriculture, and the food industry – the biggest contributors to the GHG emissions in the region – and conducted hundreds of interviews before selecting biomass waste conversion as one of the most promising opportunities in terms of both financial and carbon impact.

“There are some amazing new technologies and developments in waste valorization but due to their novelty and process complexity, they are sparsely adopted by agricultural producers. Given how challenged the industry is by multiple global crises, including climate change, the war in Ukraine, and global inflation, we want to enable these new solutions for both smallholders and large producers, and unlock 3-5x more value for them,” said Pawel Kuznicki, the Founder and CEO of WasteX.

WasteX already started a number of pilot projects across Southeast Asia with clients including integrated agricultural companies, independent mills, and livestock farms. Over time, WasteX is looking to greatly digitize its solution and connect diverse players along the biomass waste value chain to scale this new industry.