©2026 Circular Factory
Circular Factory is powered by founding partners and corporate partners
7.01.2026
Circular Factory has launched a new online knowledge base for founders, CEOs and teams working on circular and biobased factories. The knowledge base is aimed at ventures in the demo or First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) phase, where the transition is made from technology development to industrial scale-up.
Read more19.11.2025
BlueCity en Tekkoo lanceren de Circular Factory Podcast: een zesdelige, Engelstalige
serie over wat er écht komt kijken bij het bouwen van een eerste fabriek als circulaire
startup. De podcast brengt eerlijke verhalen, harde lessen en praktische inzichten van
ondernemers die werken aan de industrie van de toekomst.
18.11.2025
BlueCity and Tekkoo are launching the Circular Factory Podcast – a six-part English-language series about what it really takes to build a first factory as a circular startup. The podcast brings honest stories, hard-won lessons, and practical insights from entrepreneurs working to shape the industry of the future.
Read more11.06.2025
On May 22, we hosted the 2025 edition of Funding the Future in BlueCity — together with Invest-NL and Circular Factory (the venture-building program for capital-intensive circular pioneers, initiated by BlueCity and Tekkoo). This year, we gathered over 30 impact investors, fund managers, and public financiers who want to accelerate the industrial transition — not just in theory, but on the factory floor. Together we explored the challenges of financing and scaling circular industries.
Read more28.04.2025
Through peer-to-peer learning, network building, and strategic collaborations, Circular Factory is creating an ecosystem where founders of circular factories can strengthen one another, avoid mistakes, and accelerate the transition together.
Read more24.04.2025
Via peer-to-peer leren, netwerkvorming en strategische samenwerkingen bouwt Circular Factory aan een ecosysteem waarin founders van circulaire fabrieken elkaar versterken, fouten voorkomen en samen de transitie versnellen.
Read more17.04.2025
How can businesses create value for both people and planet? That question was at the heart of Circular Factory’s Social Impact Day on March 28th, hosted at Yespers’ Total Value Factory in The Hague. In partnership with Rabo Foundation and Stichting DOEN, the event gathered circular entrepreneurs from the Circular Factory community, ecosystem partners and experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities of inclusive hiring. The goal? Helping the entrepreneurs take their first steps toward integrating a social workforce.
27.02.2025
Early February 2025, the annual CEO & Founders Dinner took place in Rotterdam, bringing together a diverse group of entrepreneurs from the ecosystems of Circular Factory and GCNE. From those in the critical early phases of scaling up their first-of-a-kind (FOAK) factories to others navigating growth and expansion, the dinner provided a valuable space for entrepreneurs to connect, share challenges, and discuss practical solutions for sustainable scaling. No pitching, just honest, vulnerable conversations about the realities of capital-intensive scaling.
30.01.2025
Last week marked the final deep dive of the Circular Factory Program, focusing on the pillar of Team & Impact. An essential capstone to the deep dive series, in which we explore the human side of scaling—a shift from the technical topics of plant design & technology, feedstock and finance to the personal and team-driven foundations necessary for sustainable growth.
Read more13.01.2025
Right before the holidays, the Circular Factory Program participants gathered at Invest-NL’s head office in Amsterdam for the fourth deep dive day—this time focused on Finance. A fitting location, as Invest-NL is not only a program partner but also a key player in impact investing and a financier for startups scaling circular businesses, making their insights especially relevant.
Read more12.12.2024
Process design and technology decisions can make or break your scale-up journey. Last week, Circular Factory Program participants dived deep into the technicalities of optimizing processes while planning for scalability.
4.12.2024
The Circular Factory Program’s third edition is well underway to empower five circular entrepreneurs as they scale toward opening their first demo plants. Last week, our cohort dove into the Feedstock pillar, a cornerstone of the journey to scaling a circular factory. Participants explored the complexities of feedstock sourcing, quality, and regulatory challenges through a blend of expert-led sessions and a site visit to PeelPioneers, a leading circular innovator.
Read more26.11.2024
During a two day kick-off, we officially launched the third edition of the Circular Factory-program with a new cohort of circular pioneers! Time-travelling Milkman, Grassa, Caffe Inc., ETB Global and Sporo bv are all working to scale their innovations and move closer to opening a demo plant.
Read more19.11.2024
Last week, Circular Factory and Groene Chemie, Nieuwe Economie (GCNE) hosted a packed house—entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers alike—for an afternoon dedicated to the stories we rarely hear. Four speakers from our circular ecosystem recounted their toughest moments in scaling First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) factories, sharing challenges from miscommunication over plant designs to energy costs and financing structures that couldn’t hold.
Read more20.06.2024
In the transition to a circular economy, scaling up to a demo factory is not a sprint, but a marathon. All the more important to celebrate the milestones during the race. That’s exactly what Thursday June 6 was all about: the participants of the second edition of the Circular Factory program celebrated a successful completion of this stage of their journey. Six diverse circular startups with a shared goal: opening a demo factory.
Read more25.09.2023
The second edition of Circular Factory has started with six new startups that want to be prepared for building a demo factory. All six startups have real potential to provide circular alternatives on industrial scale and this is desperately needed. The coming nine months the Circular Factory programme guides the six startups through the challenging scaling phase from pilot to demo plant.
Read more20.07.2023
That is the amount the startups Bakkersgrondstof, Biophilica, BlueBlocks, Fairm, Magie Creations and Nature’s Principles need to make a serious scale step. The young companies are participants in the Circular Factory programme, set up by Tekkoo, BlueCity and partners such as Invest NL and Renewi. The program supports startups that want to build a factory for their circular or biobased products. In this way, Circular Factory wants to contribute to the realization of twenty circular factories in the coming years.
Read more7.11.2022
Invest-NL is one of the supporters of the Circular Factory program. In this interview, Maud Hartstra and Guy de Sévaux discuss the importance of scaling up circular startups. “All kinds of developments are underway, which means that many more circular start-ups will be founded in the coming years. Circular Factory is designed for circular startups in the manufacturing industry that want to scale their production by building their first factory; and help them to make this factory circular. In addition to these startups, we also see on a larger scale a new focus of moving production closer to home. More and more manufacturing companies previously located in Asia and Eastern Europe are returning to Western Europe. With the Circular Factory program we want to point out to the entire value chain that making things circular and sustainable requires a different approach and mindset, but also changes in business models and new ways of financing. As far as Invest-NL is concerned, Circular Factory is coming at the right time.”
Read more27.09.2022
On Tuesday 20 September, experts flocked to BlueCity to attend the first Pitch & Plug Event, part of the Circular Factory program by BlueCity and Tekkoo. The six participating startups pitched to the gathered crowd. This time not a shiny success story meant to sell their product, but a raw and real story about the key-issues that are currently holding them back from scaling up. Their vulnerability was rewarded with tailor-made advice. During this networking event, connections were made, feedback was given and plans were rewritten.
Read more20.09.2022
Fairm is one of the participants of Circular Factory. In this honest and open reflection, Marc Postel who is, together with Joost Vette, cofounder of Fairm describes how they have experienced the first part of the program up to September.
Read more11.08.2022
Stichting Ondernemersbelangen Rotterdam supports the Circular Factory program by BlueCity and Tekkoo. Last month, Diederik van Dommelen and Jeannette Baljeu of Stichting Ondernemersbelangen Rotterdam and Sabine Biesheuvel of BlueCity signed the contract. In this interview, Diederik van Dommelen and Jeannette Baljeu talk about why Stichting Ondernemersbelangen considers it important to give circular startups the opportunity to scale-up. “The great thing about Circular Factory is that it focuses on the production side of circular entrepreneurship. That combination of entrepreneurship and production fits in seamlessly with the objectives of Stichting Ondernemersbelangen Rotterdam.”
Read more23.06.2022
Six circular startups have been selected for the Circular Factory program of BlueCity and Tekkoo: Bakkersgrondstof, Biophilica, BlueBlocks, Fairm, MaGie Creations and Nature’s Principles. In the coming year, these startups will start preparing for their own circular factory.
Read more©2026 Circular Factory
Circular Factory is powered by founding partners and corporate partners