All Posts

As the 2025 edition of New York Climate Week comes to a close, we reflect on the key themes from an exhilarating (and exhausting) week in Gotham. And yes — there were a lot of C’s in play. Here’s my Top 3: 🇨🇳 𝐶𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 – For the first time ever, Beijing committed to Nationally Determined Contributions (a Big Moment). Speaker after speaker pointed to the astonishing stats: China added more clean energy capacity in the first six months of 2025 than the US has added ever. Wit

🚀 A World First for Baneco This week we hit a milestone: the very first viscose solution made from banana agri-waste. Why does this matter?  ✨ Viscose is one of the world’s most widely used materials — found in everyday textiles (Rayon) and films (like Cellophane).  🌳 Today, it’s almost entirely made from wood pulp, contributing to the loss of 4 billion trees every year.  🌍 The industry urgently needs sustainable alternatives. That’s where we come in. Our breakthrough show

🚀 Big news from Baneco! We’ve officially closed our $750,000 Pre-Seed Round at an $8 million valuation. This marks a major milestone in our mission to transform banana agricultural waste into the next generation of sustainable materials — from bioplastics and fibre-moulded packaging to textiles and beyond. Richard Corbett , Baneco CEO, said: “This raise validates the hard work of our team, the belief of our investors, and the growing global demand for sustainable solutions.

We are incredibly excited to announce the recent appointment of  Maximilian Bleyleben  as the new COO at Baneco! Max is a seasoned technology entrepreneur and investor with 25 years of experience in scaling startups and advising high-growth companies. His expertise spans operations, business development, account management, service delivery, finance, legal, and investor relations in dynamic tech environments. As co-founder of SuperAwesome, Max pioneered infrastructure ensurin

Today Baneco receives its first customer LOI! This is a HUGE step forwards for the company and an important commercial validation from a leading global player. With any LOI, this is where the hard work starts (not ends). But for now, a shout out to the team involved and a thank you to our partner (who will remain nameless) for showing support to Baneco on the development of sustainable materials derived from banana agriwaste! Onwards!

TEAM UPDATE: We're so incredibly excited to announce the appointment of  Lucy Yu  as Advisor at Baneco! Lucy Yu is an accomplished senior leader with two decades of experience building and scaling global consumer-facing and deeptech ventures; and developing policy and regulation for governments around the world. She has led operations, commercial, policy, government affairs and research functions for several high-growth, globally-renowned technology start-ups including two un