ARC Marine has secured a £1 million equity investment from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), as part of a larger £2 million-plus funding round.
The deal was led by the FSE Group, the appointed fund manager for CIOSIF, with the investment enabling ARC (Accelerating Reef Creation) Marine to create at least six new positions over the next three years as the business continues to expand its operations.
Human activity is exacerbating the effects of climate change globally, with major impacts on ocean health. ARC Marine provides sustainable solutions to combat these subsea impacts.
Since 2015, ARC Marine has been developing and creating nature-inclusive products using recycled materials. The company’s first product – Reef Cubes – is the only carbon-neutral, plastic-free solution for marine habitat restoration in the world, and a sought-after solution for various global marine projects.
Regionally made using its propriety non-toxic concrete, its products are used in a variety of marine applications across aquaculture, coastal defence, reef conservation, eco-engineering and sub-sea protection. They can help reduce the carbon footprint of deployments by 90%, naturally merging into ecosystems and negating costly, often damaging decommissioning activity.
In this way, ARC Marine aims to have an environmental, economic and societal impact across the south west and beyond.
Co-founder and CEO, Tom Birbeck, said: “This funding is critical to ARC Marine being able to expand production in Cornwall, enabling us to accelerate growth to meet increasing demand from the marine renewables sector globally, as well as provide opportunities across our region.
“Having supportive investors such as CIOSIF will be key to underpinning our aspirations of leading the world in protecting and enhancing marine habitats from necessary man-made intervention.”
John Acornley, LEP non-executive director and chair of the CIOSIF Advisory Board, added: “It is great to see ARC Marine at the forefront of eco-engineering, supported initially by Cornwall’s Marine-i technology innovation project and Plymouth University to develop their unique product for global markets, and now accelerated by CIOSIF’s investment.
“This is an impressive solution to a global problem and it is fantastic to see Cornwall leading the charge.”
CIOSIF is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
