Bristol-based advanced materials startup Uplift360 has secured €7.4 million in Seed funding to accelerate its mission to regenerate high-value composite materials and reinforce supply-chain resilience across aerospace, defence and industrial manufacturing.
The round was led by Extantia, with participation from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Promus Ventures and Fund F. The investment comes as Uplift360 deepens collaborations with major industrial players, including Rolls-Royce, and prepares to scale its proprietary composite regeneration technology.
Turning composite waste into strategic feedstock
Founded in 2021 by Sam Staincliffe and Jamie Wardle, Uplift360 is tackling one of advanced manufacturing’s most persistent challenges: what to do with end-of-life composite materials such as carbon fibre and aramid.
These materials are critical to aerospace, defence, wind energy and high-performance automotive sectors, yet they are notoriously difficult to recycle. As a result, large volumes are currently incinerated, landfilled or exported, even as Europe faces growing supply constraints driven by geopolitics and limited virgin fibre availability.
Uplift360’s approach is not recycling in the traditional sense. Its proprietary chemical regeneration process recovers fibres without degrading their performance, producing output material with the same quality as the original input. This enables composites to be reused in demanding applications, giving them a true second life rather than down-cycling them into lower-value uses.
From bootstrapping to Seed capital
Prior to this €7.4 million round, Uplift360 had progressed largely through non-dilutive funding, early angel backing and pilot projects with industrial partners. The company previously secured UK innovation grants to support early research and process development, helping it move from lab-scale validation to industrial proof-of-concept.
This Seed round marks the company’s first significant institutional equity financing and is designed to bridge the gap between pilot success and commercial deployment. It also provides the capital base required to support long-term collaborations with aerospace and defence primes, where qualification cycles are complex and capital-intensive.
Sam Staincliffe, CEO and co-founder, said the round signals growing confidence in Europe’s ability to lead in sustainable advanced-materials manufacturing: “Our technology turns what is currently burned, buried or exported into a reliable, high-quality feedstock stream, strengthening supply chains for primes, OEMs and government customers. With Extantia and the NATO Innovation Fund behind us, we’re now positioned to scale with urgency.”
Scaling pilots and industrial partnerships
The new funding will enable Uplift360 to commission its first pilot-scale processing line in the UK in 2026. This facility will support higher material volumes, real-world validation and direct integration with customer supply chains.
In parallel, the company plans to expand partnerships with aerospace, defence, automotive and energy OEMs, while increasing R&D into regenerated-fibre performance enhancement and new applications. A key part of the strategy is building a distributed, scalable model for composite circularity across Europe, rather than relying on a single centralised facility.
Uplift360 is already working with industrial partners including Babcock on Eurofighter Typhoon end-of-life materials recovery, Leonardo on repurposing Merlin helicopter blades into uncrewed systems components, and Rolls-Royce on composite recovery initiatives.
Positioned within Europe’s circular materials momentum
Uplift360’s Seed round lands amid a broader surge of capital flowing into circular and advanced-materials innovation across Europe. Over the past two years, more than €170 million in disclosed funding and fund capital has been directed towards low-carbon industrial processes, recyclable materials and strategic resource recovery.
This includes growth-stage funds focused on industrial decarbonisation, as well as early-stage investments in chemically recyclable plastics, AI-driven metal recycling and recovery of critical materials from batteries. Within this landscape, Uplift360 represents a UK-based contribution focused specifically on high-performance composites and supply-chain sovereignty.
Joern-Carlos Kuntze, Partner at Extantia, said: “High-performance composites underpin strategic sectors critical to Europe’s reindustrialisation, yet remain notoriously difficult to recycle. Uplift360 is transforming end-of-life materials into high-quality feedstock while building resilient circular supply chains in the process.”
Dual-use relevance and long-term ambition
The involvement of the NATO Innovation Fund underscores the dual-use relevance of Uplift360’s technology. Advanced composites play a foundational role in defence platforms, yet supply disruptions and material waste pose growing strategic risks.
Sander Verbrugge, Partner at the NATO Innovation Fund, said the platform addresses a critical vulnerability by reducing dependence on virgin materials while lowering emissions and strengthening industrial resilience.
With its Seed financing in place, Uplift360 is now focused on transitioning from a technology innovator into a scaled industrial partner. By regenerating advanced composites at quality parity and embedding circularity into supply chains, the company aims to make composite waste a strategic resource rather than an industrial liability.