Startengy

Startengy is an innovative company founded in 2021 in L’Aquila, with a project located between Magliano dei Marsi and Avezzano. Its mission is to accelerate the transition to a green model by transforming waste into new raw materials and energy, minimizing waste, and promoting a more sustainable economy.

The project is classified as “Industrial Scale-up Ready” and includes two production sites covering a total area of approximately 4,000 square meters. Its declared innovative assets include 13 patents, 19 certifications, and 3 trade secrets - elements that strengthen the project’s technological protection and its industrial appeal.

The production model is based on five key elements: industrial sludge and wastewater, wood, plastic, technological innovation, and blockchain-based certification. These inputs generate a variety of products and business lines: fertilizer, distilled and purified water, calibrated wood chips, plastic pellets, valuable materials, energy, biochar, and certification services.

Finance Atena® worked on the project using an economic and financial modeling approach, which helped transform a complex business idea into an industrial project that could be understood from an investor’s perspective.

The model was broken down into business units to highlight each area’s contribution to value creation. The documentation identifies three main areas: Research & Development, Biomass Applications, and Green Materials. The first area develops sustainable technologies and provides specialized consulting; the second converts biomass into energy and value-added products; the third recovers and transforms waste materials into marketable resources.

The value of the model lies in its integrated logic: each production segment generates both a finished product and a contribution to the continuation of the transformation process. In this way, Startengy is not represented as a single production line, but as a circular industrial ecosystem in which waste, byproducts, and resources are continuously valorized.

Finance Atena® has also positioned the project within a favorable regulatory framework linked to sustainability, the energy transition, greenhouse gas reduction, the CSRD, the Taxonomy Regulation, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, the PNRR, and green finance instruments.

The added value of Finance Atena® was to transform Startengy into a clear and understandable industrial and financial project: a proposal capable of demonstrating what the company produces, how it produces it, which markets it serves, which technologies protect it, and what return it can generate for investors.

The Plan highlights a variety of products. Plastic pellets and valuable materials are derived from WEEE and industrial waste; fertilizers, distilled water, and purified water are obtained from industrial sludge and wastewater; wood is transformed into calibrated wood chips, which are noted for having a higher calorific value and lower processing costs compared to pellets; self-sufficient facilities yield energy, water, biochar, and metals extracted from water.

The updated presentation quantifies annual revenues at full capacity by product line: plastic recycling €14.39 million, blockchain certifications €6.24 million, water €4.10 million, fertilizer €3.78 million, calibrated wood chips €2.88 million, precious metals €1.87 million, and energy, water, and biochar €1.05 million. The EBITDA projected for the 7th year is €27 million, with an IRR of 57% in the 7th year.

On the investment side, the updated document calls for a two-round structure: Round 1 of €2.7 million and Round 2 of €10.6 million, for a total investment of €13.3 million. The project also calls for an industrial setup spanning two production sites totaling 4,000 square meters.

The comprehensive documentation rounds out the picture with a proposal for professional investors comprising €16,097,642 in invested equity, an expected duration of 10 years, senior preferred equity, a 24% distribution rate, and an expected return of €107.50 million, consisting of €20.59 million in dividends and €86.91 million in terminal value at the exit strategy.

In this way, Finance Atena® has made the project evaluable not only from a technological standpoint but also from an industrial and financial perspective: investments, sources of funds, uses of funds, revenues by business unit, expected returns, incentives, innovation protection, and exit strategy.