Ingka Sets €1bn Goal to Accelerate Recycling Capacity Expansion

Ingka Investments, the investment arm of the Ingka Group, established its ‘Circular Investments’ division in 2017 to support sustainable innovation. To date, the firm has allocated around €333 million to circular economy ventures and plans to expand the fund to €1 billion rapidly.

Ingka Investments manages a portfolio of approximately €27 billion, with over €3.5 billion in renewable energy assets. Its Circular Investments arm targets startups, and scaleups focused on recycling innovations and capacity building, particularly in materials critical to Ikea’s business models, such as plastics, food, textiles, and wood.

According to investment portfolio director Lukas Visser, the division will maintain its focus on these priority materials for future investments but plans to expand into new markets beyond its current focus in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

Circular Investments has supported impactful ventures, including:

• RetourMatras: A Dutch company specializing in mattress recycling. Its technology extracts up to 80% of materials by weight from used mattresses, enabling Ikea to incorporate recycled components into over 30 product lines.

• Next Generation Group: A company developing breakthrough chemical recycling technologies for hard-to-recycle plastics, advancing the circular economy in the plastics industry.

Visser noted that Ingka Investments typically backs profitable businesses looking to scale their operations but is also open to earlier-stage investments in breakthrough recycling technologies.

Managing director Peter van der Poel says Ingka Investments is far from a passive investor. The company takes a hands-on approach, offering financial backing, practical support, industry connections, and engagement with policymakers and regulators to help its portfolio companies thrive.

He noted that better regulation and legislation could help to unlock even more funding, stating: “Through investments, we are committed to doing our part to ensure that valuable materials are recycled and reused in the production of new products. What would help us go further is if legislation was stronger at prioritizing recycling over incineration and landfilling, for example, by ensuring that Extended Producer Responsibility schemes were resulting in higher recycling rates. We also welcome eco-design regulations to encourage the demand for these recycled materials, and we are actively collaborating with relevant authorities and other stakeholders to address these issues.”