INCA secures $40 million funding commitment for biocomposites development

INCA Renewable Technologies (Kelowna, Canada), manufacturer of natural fiber composites, has secured a $40 million funding commitment as part of a Series B round from a private New York Family Office (N.Y., U.S.). 

“This is an important milestone for our company,” INCA’s chairman and CEO, David Saltman, explains. “This round of funding will enable us to commercialize our line of hemp-based, advanced biocomposites for Toyota North America, Winnebago Industries and Gurit, as well as to move forward with construction of our hemp fiber processing facility in western Canada. Completion of the project will make INCA the first vertically integrated natural fiber composites company in the world.”

INCA’s team has deployed its decades of award-winning experience in fiber processing and biocomposites innovation and manufacturing to produce lighter prepregs for the automotive industry, large dimensional panels to replace plywood in recreational vehicle (RV) sidewalls, cores for wind turbine blades and boats and compounded pellets to replace glass fiber-reinforced plastics. 

The product line will be manufactured from hemp, which has been legally grown in the Canadian Prairies since 1998, primarily for plant-based protein. INCA will acquire the waste biomass from large growers, refine it into long fiber, short fiber and hurd, and manufacture the full product line. 

“As the shift to new lighter, stronger composite materials which reduce carbon footprint is accelerating, our firm sees the value of this innovative technology, which is not only good business, but on Earth Day, good for the planet,” the New York Family Office CEO says.

The family office engaged the services of Woodington Lane Ventures (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) to evaluate the investment in INCA. According to Woodington’s CEO, Howard Morton, “INCA serves a proven, growing market— balancing attractive automotive contracts, with distinctive technology. I believe that INCA’s vertically integrated business model helps de-risk an already established industry. This ‘farm to factory floor’ business model offers Tier 1 manufacturers a secure supply chain and cost-competitive alternatives to petroleum- and wood-based incumbents.” 

“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. We think it is a winning value proposition,” Saltman concludes.

INCA Renewable Technologies won a JEC Composites Startup Booster 2023 award in the category of “Products and Materials.”