April 11, 2024

💸 Investment News 💸: Renewaball

Each year 350 million tennis & padel balls end up in the incinerator, in a dog’s mouth, on a tow bar, or disappear into nature where the plastic and rubber slowly crumble. But what if you could reuse all those old and used balls to make new tennis and padel balls? Our latest investment Renewaball came up with a groundbreaking circular solution. 

Approved by the international tennis and padel federations

Renewaball, founded in Amsterdam in 2021, collects and recycles end-of-life tennis balls into new ones through its proprietary technology: processing used balls into clean and separate partitions of rubber and felt and putting them back together. By doing so, it reduces the carbon footprint of a single tennis ball by at least 29%. In addition Renewaball has built a waste collection network with partners across Europe including >200 tennis clubs in the Netherlands, UK and Germany as well as a distribution network with retailers including Decathlon, Intersport and Tennis-/Padel-direct. Renewaball also received the crucial approval from the international tennis and padel federations in 2022, allowing the balls to be used in official tournaments.

Let’s make circularity the new normal in sports

At Rubio we are especially excited about the potential to inspire the entire sporting goods industry to be more circular by proving Renewaball’s recycling model works for other products too, in other words: the systemic impact potential. The founders Hélène Hoogeboom (CEO), Marc Rouffaer (CMO) and Günther van de Rijt (COO) impressed us with their dedication and resilience to make circularity the new normal in sports. We believe that by supporting Renewaball, we can contribute to a mindset shift towards sustainability in tennis and padel and beyond.

Want to find out more about Renewaball? Check out their portfolio page: https://www.rubio.vc/portfolio/renewaball/