Bintang Capital Partners Berhad (Bintang) has announced its investment under its maiden fund, BCP Asia Fund I L.P (BCPAF I) into Singapore-based waste management firm Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Pte Ltd (Blue Planet) to support the continued growth of its sustainable waste management technologies and capabilities.

The investment marks a significant milestone in Bintang’s commitment to supporting innovative companies that can revolutionize the waste management industry and drive positive impact to the environment, Bintang said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, the investment proceeds are to be utilized to expand the company’s operational teams and portfolio of waste management technologies, which in turn will allow Blue Planet to manage and process additional waste types in its existing as well as new markets.

It is noted that Bintang’s investment was driven by its belief that there is an urgent need for sustainable waste management solutions at scale, akin to Blue Planet’s, to address the growing volumes of hazardous and environmentally damaging waste being produced globally.

In Malaysia alone, it is estimated that approximately 38,000 metric tonnes of waste per day was generated in 2021, contributing to the overflowing of local landfills and environmental pollution.

Through Bintang’s investment, it aims to support Blue Planet’s efforts to tackle this critical waste problem in Malaysia and abroad.

“This partnership will help to continue Blue Planet’s growth, particularly with respect to expanding the types of wastes and the countries within which our portfolio of solutions will be applied,

“With Bintang’s support, we have greater confidence and optimism in moving towards our vision of a zero waste-tolandfill future,” said Madhujeet Chimni, Founder of Blue Planet.

Blue Planet is a global waste management enterprise that is delivering innovative environmentally friendly and fully integrated waste management solutions across India,
Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

The company leverages its proprietary technologies to deliver a broad range of solutions, including the remediation and recovery of waste-contaminated areas, waste collection and sorting, reclamation of raw materials (e.g. metals, wood or concrete) from waste, waste-to-energy solutions as well asrecycling and upcycling waste into functional higher-value products, for multiple types of waste (e.g. municipal solid waste, industrial waste, electronic waste, construction waste and scheduled waste).

Since Blue Planet’s inception in 2017 by its founders, Madhujeet Chimni, Bharadwaj Chivukula, and Prashant Singh, the company has proven its track record in waste management solutions and addressed the pressing challenges of resource recovery.

The company has processed 3.3 million metric tonnes of waste and mitigated an equivalent of 2 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2022 alone.

It is estimated that Blue Planet currently removes 15,200 metric tonnes of waste per day from existing landfills, generates 10,000 normal cubic metres of biogas (as clean energy) per day via the processing of organic waste and has recovered more than 800 acres of land (legacy landfills) for public use.

“Given the urgency around the growing global waste problem, and as the first B Corp Certified private equity firm in Southeast Asia, Bintang is thrilled to be a part of Blue Planet’s quest to transform the Southeast Asian waste management industry,” said Bintang’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Johan Rozali-Wathooth.

He said Bintang is strongly aligned to Blue Planet’s innovative, efficient and sustainable approach towards waste management, coupled with the company’s ability to successfully combine cutting-edge technologies and streamlined processes at scale.

“The remediation of legacy landfills, which can be then put to use as public spaces and rehabilitated for the planting of trees, provides opportunities to not only reverse ecological damage of the past but also create net positive environmental impact in the future,” he added.

Bintang is the private equity arm of AHAM Asset Management Berhad, a Malaysian asset management group.

The firm focuses on deploying capital into fast-growing mid-sized ASEAN companies with proven track records.

The firm’s maiden fund, BCPAF I is anchored by Dana Penjana Nasional, an investment fund under the Malaysian Government’s Ministry of Finance aimed at catalyzing the country’s post Covid-19 economic recovery whilst supporting the local private capital industry.

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