Nigerian cleantech company, Kaltani, has raised $4 million in seed round to expand its waste recycling and management platform.
This current raise will enable Kaltani to open 20 more collection stations in the 10 states it plans to expand to. The startup has a current team of 100 and will use this new fund to increase its team by 500 more. This expansion will further Kaltani’s plan to reduce 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste from the environment.
Obi Charles Nnanna launched Kaltani in 2019 to reduce the amount of plastic waste pollution in Nigeria. Kaltani gathers waste, purifies and recycles post consumer PET, PE and PP plastic waste into hot washed flakes and pellets The products are then sold to fast moving consumer goods companies. This advocates for a waste reduction system and is more economical as opposed to the usage of virgin materials. By turning recyclables over to Kaltani, people are also able to monetize their waste.
According to Nnanna, the plastic waste market is an $8 billion market and appropriate measures must be taken to detoxify the ecosystem as Nigeria ranks first in contributing to plastic waste pollution in Africa and 7th on a global scale.
The startup which Obi Charles says is just scratching on the surface intends to close another funding round before the end of the year to reduce 40,000 tonnes of plastic waste in Nigeria as well as increase its staff strength to 2,000.
He said, “the world has a plastic pollution crisis. Plastic waste is an environmental disaster causing environmental degradation to our oceans, aquatic life, the air we breathe and our health. With the amount of plastic waste produced set to continue skyrocketing, the world desperately needs actionable and scalable solutions.
“At Kaltani, we have already proven that our solution and model works effectively and efficiently with a thorough A-Z value chain solution, and we are beyond excited to commence our expansion into other parts of Nigeria,” Nnanna added.
