Closed Loop Ventures invests in Rebound Technologies

Closed Loop Ventures (CLV), an early-stage equity fund that invests in consumer goods, advanced recycling technologies and services supporting the circular economy, has announced an investment in Rebound Technologies, Boulder, Colorado.  

Rebound has developed IcePoint, a disruptive technology marking the first major innovation in refrigeration in 100 years, according to the company. IcePoint is a low-temperature refrigeration cycle for supermarkets. The liquid subcooling product plugs into refrigeration systems to boost performance of industrial freezers. CLV invested alongside the nonprofit

PRIME Coalition and Investors’ Circle, an investment fund based in Durham, North Carolina. 
 

Chris Cochran, executive director of the multistakeholder nonprofit ReFed, says, “Cold chain management improvements have the capacity to reduce U.S. food waste by 18,000 tons annually, generating millions of dollars of savings for consumers and businesses.” 

Kevin Davis, CEO of Rebound Technologies, says, “Our proprietary technology allows cold storage logistics companies and food processors to freeze more food in less time, using 40 percent less energy compared to legacy equipment. This means less food waste and more revenue for farmers.”

Davis continues, “IcePoint not only provides unprecedented efficiency gains, but it also provides the operational flexibility to enable bursts of high capacity, on-demand cooling. This unique characteristic can speed up blast freezing times or mitigate peak electricity expenses, depending on the user’s optimization preference. CLV’s investment in our company will both help us successfully deliver our first pilot later this year and because CLV specializes in the circular economy, we think of it as smart capital that will help us make important connections to grow our business as well.”

Project Drawdown, a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken, ranked refrigeration management and reducing food waste as the No. 1 and No. 3 most substantive solutions to global warming, respectively. 

As reported in the Washington Post, 40 percent of all foods require refrigeration and as much as 20 percent to 30 percent of food loss during shipping is caused by breaks in the cold chain, which Rebound’s technology is directly improving, says CLV.

A facility using two IcePoint units annually is projected to divert 4,400 tons of food waste, decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 23,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, and save 14 billion gallons of water. This impact is realized while also increasing earnings by $275,000 per unit. 

CLV says it has made six investments since its inception, including AMP Robotics, a Denver-based robotics company solving for recycling inefficiency; HomeBiogas, a residential-scale anaerobic digestion company solving for food waste; and Evrnu, a Seattle-based fiber technology company turning textile waste into new fibers).  

“Rebound Technologies directly addresses a huge driver of waste in the food supply chain—inefficiencies in the freezing process between the farm and the retailer,” says Rob Kaplan, CLV managing director. “Based on our work with retailers and consumer product companies, we believe there is a strong demand for this technology.”

CLV a global equity fund that invests in early stage consumer goods, advanced recycling technologies and services supporting the circular economy. CLV is the venture arm of Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm that also manages the Closed Loop Fund, a project finance fund that invests in scaling recycling infrastructure and sustainable manufacturing technologies, and Closed Loop Foundation, a nonprofit that does research and development of technologies and business models both focused on building the circular economy.