logo
Circulate Capital Closes Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Fund at Over US$75M, One of the Region's Largest Environmental Funds; Firm's Total AUM Reaches Approximately US$265M

Circulate Capital Closes Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Fund at Over US$75M, One of the Region's Largest Environmental Funds; Firm's Total AUM Reaches Approximately US$265M

New Investment Partners Join LAC Fund, Including iAlumbra, Heading for Change, Sea Forward, and LATAM Impact Fund
MEXICO CITY, MX / ACCESS Newswire / July 8, 2025 / Circulate Capital, a leading investment management firm advancing the circular economy in high-growth markets, announced today the final close of its fund to combat plastic pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at US$75.8M, bringing the firm's total AUM to approximately US$265M.
The firm also welcomed new partners to the LAC fund: iAlumbra, Heading for Change, Sea Forward, and the LATAM Impact Fund. These values-aligned investors represent some of the region's most forward-thinking capital providers and bring deep expertise in sustainable growth:
Their participation builds on the foundation laid by the investors who anchored the Fund's launch in May 2023, including global corporates Danone, Dow, Mondelēz International, Unilever, and Chevron Phillips Chemical, alongside mission-aligned partners IDB Lab (the innovation arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group) and Builders Vision. This combination of corporate partnerships and impact-focused capital remains central to the fund's strategy to scale best-in-class recycling and circular economy solutions across the region.
Addressing a Regional Challenge with Global Implications
Latin America and the Caribbean face a pressing plastic waste crisis. The region's extensive coastline, combined with high urbanization and limited waste infrastructure, contributes to significant plastic leakage into the environment. An estimated 3.7 million metric tons of plastic waste have entered the ocean from LAC, a figure projected to rise to 4.4 million metric tons by 2050 if the trend persists.
At the same time, global demand for high-quality, recycled plastics is accelerating, driven by ambitious corporate sustainability targets and regulatory pressures. Yet, the region's recycling value chain remains largely underdeveloped and underfunded, stalling environmental progress and constraining economic potential. Circulate Capital's LAC fund was created to bridge this critical gap. By mobilizing capital, the fund aims to scale high-performance recycling infrastructure, unlock local innovation, and foster the next generation of circular economy leaders.
Portfolio Momentum and Regional Impact
To date, the fund has made four investments across Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, with more in the pipeline. These companies are already transforming high-value recycled materials including over 100,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, creating more than 800 direct jobs, and strengthening regional supply chains for recycled materials that meet global brands standards.
Current Investments include:
These investments build on Circulate Capital's proven model, honed through six years of building the largest portfolio of recycling companies in South and Southeast Asia. To date, the firm has backed 23 companies globally.
'Today's plastic problem is tomorrow's profit opportunity - if you know where to look. We're looking at Latin America,' said Rob Kaplan, Founder and CEO of Circulate Capital. 'In a shifting macroeconomic landscape, Latin America's high-growth markets are increasingly attractive for institutional and corporate investors alike.'
Kaplan added: 'Our portfolio companies are tackling three challenges at once: waste reduction, job creation, and cleaner communities across Latin America. From waste to wealth, from pollution to profit - that's the circular economy opportunity we're scaling across Latin America.'
About Circulate Capital
Circulate Capital is a leading environmental impact investor advancing the circular economy for plastics in high-growth markets, with activities and teams in 10+ countries. Partnering with global brands and financial institutions, we transform supply chains at scale by delivering economic, social, and environmental value. Launched in 2018 by supply chain experts and leading corporations - including PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Chanel, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Chevron Phillips Chemical, and Mondelēz International - the firm is scaling solutions across the recycling and innovative materials value chains. Founded in and focused initially on South and Southeast Asia, Circulate Capital expanded its activities to Latin America in 2023 with the support of IDB Lab, Builders Vision, Chevron Phillips Chemical, Dow, Danone, Mondelez International, Unilever, and private investors.
Contact InformationCindy Stoller +1 917-331-0418
SOURCE: Circulate Capital
press release
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley
Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley

CNN

time2 minutes ago

  • CNN

Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that's expected to be as influential as the internet itself. The White House largely seeks to achieve that lofty, Silicon Valley-friendly goal through scaling back AI regulation — with a notable, MAGA-friendly exception that will work to eliminate political 'bias' in AI. The plan includes three pillars: accelerating innovation, building out AI infrastructure in the United States and making American hardware and software the 'standard' platform for AI innovations built around the world. The plan also recommends that large language models procured by the federal government are 'objective and free from top-down ideological bias,' according to a 28-page plan published by the White House Wednesday. It's the Trump administration's latest push to expand AI infrastructure and investments in the United States and serves as another indication that staying ahead of China in AI is a top priority for the administration. 'It's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence,' said White House AI Czar David Sacks on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. 'And we want the United States to win that race. AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and for national security, so it is just very important that America continue to be the dominant power in AI.' The announcement came before Trump is expected to outline his AI plans during an event in Washington Wednesday evening called Winning the AI Race. The event will be hosted by the 'All-in Podcast,' a show about business and politics co-hosted by Sacks among other industry figures, and the Hill & Valley Forum, a group that hosts a tech and policy conference founded by Jacob Helberg, previously a commissioner for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and investors Delian Asparouhov and Christian Garrett. The plan involves removing what the Trump administration described as 'bureaucratic red tape' to AI development and is based on recommendations from the private sector, as well as academia and civil society groups, White House officials said. It also calls for streamlining permitting for data centers, semiconductor manufacturing facilities and energy infrastructure. And the government will partner with US tech companies to make 'full stack AI export packages' — AI models, hardware and software — available to American ally countries. That's in an effort to make US technology the global standard, something Silicon Valley leaders have called for to ensure the United States remains an AI leader. Michael Krastios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, said on the conference call that all policies outlined in the action plan can be executed in the next six months to a year. Lawmakers and tech leaders have been divided on how AI should be regulated, highlighting the struggle to balance safety with speed. Soon after taking office, Trump repealed a sweeping executive order passed by former President Joe Biden that sought to implement some safeguards around AI development and use. More recently, the US Senate voted on July 1 to remove a provision from Republicans' sweeping domestic policy legislation, for example, that would have prevented states from enforcing AI-related laws for 10 years. Tech leaders have argued that state-level rules or a patchwork of regulation could slow innovation and deployment. But those who opposed the provision worried that it would hamper efforts to keep AI safe and hold tech companies accountable. However, the AI action plan recommends that the federal government 'consider a state's AI regulatory climate' when considering how to distribute federal funding for AI-related programs. Some have criticized the Trump Administration's agenda for prioritizing the interests of the tech industry over AI safety, in the face of concerns about AI taking jobs or harming children, among others. A coalition of privacy advocates, labor unions and other organizations are calling for a People's Action Plan to counter the Trump administration's proposals. Its signatories include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Writers Guild of America East and research institute the AI Now Institute. A senior White House official said that more than 10,000 responses from 'diverse' individuals and sectors were submitted in the White House's request for information to inform the plan. The plan recommends updating federal procurement guidelines so the government contracts only with large language model developers that 'ensure their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.' But experts have said enforcing such a rule could be challenging since it's unclear what the definition of 'bias' is. That could also slow down innovation, because tech companies looking to secure government contracts will likely have new guidelines to adhere to. 'This type of thing, which creates all kinds of concerns and liability and complexity for the people developing these models — all of a sudden they have to slow down,' said Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based nonprofit research institute. Wednesday's plan follows a series of AI and tech-related investments and announcements from private businesses made throughout Trump's second term thus far. On July 15, the president announced an investment of more than $90 billion from companies across tech, energy and finance to turn Pennsylvania into a hub for artificial intelligence. He kicked off his second term with a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which involves a collaboration between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. He also said he would roll back Biden-era AI export restrictions on AI chips, and Nvidia was recently allowed to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China. More broadly, Trump has been pressuring tech giants to expand their US operations in a bid to bring back US manufacturing, create jobs and reduce reliance on China for tech production, although experts have been skeptical that such efforts will be successful. He's touted investments from companies like Apple and TSMC as political victories, although it's possible that at least some of those plans were in place regardless of Trump's push. Collaboration between the tech industry and the White House isn't new; it's happened under the Biden administration and long before then. But tech CEOs have been noticeably present through Trump's first six months in office. Tech giants and the White House have come together over a shared goal: Staying ahead of China's AI ambitions. Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the markets and Silicon Valley earlier this year with its powerful yet supposedly cheap-to-train R1 model, sparking concern that China may be further ahead than expected. The challenge of maintaining an edge in AI while prioritizing safety has come up on Capitol Hill before; tech leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, CoreWeave and AMD addressed the issue in a Senate committee hearing in May. 'The number one factor that will define whether the United States or China wins this race is whose technology is most broadly adopted in the rest of the world,' Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said during that hearing.

S&P/TSX composite up Wednesday morning, U.S. markets also higher
S&P/TSX composite up Wednesday morning, U.S. markets also higher

Hamilton Spectator

time15 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

S&P/TSX composite up Wednesday morning, U.S. markets also higher

TORONTO - Gains in battery metal stocks helped lift Canada's main stock index in late-morning trading on Wednesday, while U.S. markets also rose. The S&P/TSX composite index was up 76.52 points at 27,440.95. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 204.92 points at 44,707.36. The S&P 500 index was up 15.51 points at 6,325.13, while the Nasdaq composite was up 13.96 points at 20,906.65. The Canadian dollar traded for 73.45 cents US compared with 73.34 cents US on Tuesday. The September crude oil contract was down 44 cents US at US$64.87 per barrel. The August gold contract was down US$20.60 at US$3,423.10 an ounce. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley
Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley

CNN

time29 minutes ago

  • CNN

Trump reveals plan to win in AI: Remove ‘red tape' for Silicon Valley

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled its AI action plan, a package of initiatives and policy recommendations meant to cement the United States as a global leader in a technology that's expected to be as influential as the internet itself. The White House largely seeks to achieve that lofty, Silicon Valley-friendly goal through scaling back AI regulation — with a notable, MAGA-friendly exception that will work to eliminate political 'bias' in AI. The plan includes three pillars: accelerating innovation, building out AI infrastructure in the United States and making American hardware and software the 'standard' platform for AI innovations built around the world. The plan also recommends that large language models procured by the federal government are 'objective and free from top-down ideological bias,' according to a 28-page plan published by the White House Wednesday. It's the Trump administration's latest push to expand AI infrastructure and investments in the United States and serves as another indication that staying ahead of China in AI is a top priority for the administration. 'It's a global competition now to lead in artificial intelligence,' said White House AI Czar David Sacks on a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning. 'And we want the United States to win that race. AI is a revolutionary technology that's going to have profound ramifications for both the economy and for national security, so it is just very important that America continue to be the dominant power in AI.' The announcement came before Trump is expected to outline his AI plans during an event in Washington Wednesday evening called Winning the AI Race. The event will be hosted by the 'All-in Podcast,' a show about business and politics co-hosted by Sacks among other industry figures, and the Hill & Valley Forum, a group that hosts a tech and policy conference founded by Jacob Helberg, previously a commissioner for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and investors Delian Asparouhov and Christian Garrett. The plan involves removing what the Trump administration described as 'bureaucratic red tape' to AI development and is based on recommendations from the private sector, as well as academia and civil society groups, White House officials said. It also calls for streamlining permitting for data centers, semiconductor manufacturing facilities and energy infrastructure. And the government will partner with US tech companies to make 'full stack AI export packages' — AI models, hardware and software — available to American ally countries. That's in an effort to make US technology the global standard, something Silicon Valley leaders have called for to ensure the United States remains an AI leader. Michael Krastios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, said on the conference call that all policies outlined in the action plan can be executed in the next six months to a year. Lawmakers and tech leaders have been divided on how AI should be regulated, highlighting the struggle to balance safety with speed. Soon after taking office, Trump repealed a sweeping executive order passed by former President Joe Biden that sought to implement some safeguards around AI development and use. More recently, the US Senate voted on July 1 to remove a provision from Republicans' sweeping domestic policy legislation, for example, that would have prevented states from enforcing AI-related laws for 10 years. Tech leaders have argued that state-level rules or a patchwork of regulation could slow innovation and deployment. But those who opposed the provision worried that it would hamper efforts to keep AI safe and hold tech companies accountable. However, the AI action plan recommends that the federal government 'consider a state's AI regulatory climate' when considering how to distribute federal funding for AI-related programs. Some have criticized the Trump Administration's agenda for prioritizing the interests of the tech industry over AI safety, in the face of concerns about AI taking jobs or harming children, among others. A coalition of privacy advocates, labor unions and other organizations are calling for a People's Action Plan to counter the Trump administration's proposals. Its signatories include the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Writers Guild of America East and research institute the AI Now Institute. A senior White House official said that more than 10,000 responses from 'diverse' individuals and sectors were submitted in the White House's request for information to inform the plan. The plan recommends updating federal procurement guidelines so the government contracts only with large language model developers that 'ensure their systems are objective and free from top-down ideological bias.' But experts have said enforcing such a rule could be challenging since it's unclear what the definition of 'bias' is. That could also slow down innovation, because tech companies looking to secure government contracts will likely have new guidelines to adhere to. 'This type of thing, which creates all kinds of concerns and liability and complexity for the people developing these models — all of a sudden they have to slow down,' said Oren Etzioni, former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based nonprofit research institute. Wednesday's plan follows a series of AI and tech-related investments and announcements from private businesses made throughout Trump's second term thus far. On July 15, the president announced an investment of more than $90 billion from companies across tech, energy and finance to turn Pennsylvania into a hub for artificial intelligence. He kicked off his second term with a $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate, which involves a collaboration between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison. He also said he would roll back Biden-era AI export restrictions on AI chips, and Nvidia was recently allowed to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China. More broadly, Trump has been pressuring tech giants to expand their US operations in a bid to bring back US manufacturing, create jobs and reduce reliance on China for tech production, although experts have been skeptical that such efforts will be successful. He's touted investments from companies like Apple and TSMC as political victories, although it's possible that at least some of those plans were in place regardless of Trump's push. Collaboration between the tech industry and the White House isn't new; it's happened under the Biden administration and long before then. But tech CEOs have been noticeably present through Trump's first six months in office. Tech giants and the White House have come together over a shared goal: Staying ahead of China's AI ambitions. Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled the markets and Silicon Valley earlier this year with its powerful yet supposedly cheap-to-train R1 model, sparking concern that China may be further ahead than expected. The challenge of maintaining an edge in AI while prioritizing safety has come up on Capitol Hill before; tech leaders from Microsoft, OpenAI, CoreWeave and AMD addressed the issue in a Senate committee hearing in May. 'The number one factor that will define whether the United States or China wins this race is whose technology is most broadly adopted in the rest of the world,' Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said during that hearing.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store