Skip to content
Raise Lens

Circular Economy funders

23 listings tracked right now

Circular economy funding has moved from a niche industrial-decarbonization sub-theme to a top-line priority in the EU (Circular Economy Action Plan, Horizon Cluster 6), the UK (DEFRA Resources & Waste Strategy), and a growing list of MDB programmes. The 2024–2026 wave concentrates on textiles, electronics, plastics, and battery materials. The organisations listed below are the circular economy funders behind that picture, each with what it backs, where it operates and how it prefers to be approached.

The funders are industrial and energy ministries, development banks lending against industrial retrofits, and a growing set of corporate buyers using purchase commitments to bring low-carbon materials to market. Foundations are comparatively thin here. Where a programme is open to smaller organisations it is usually through a supply-chain or consortium route rather than a direct award.

This page lists every funder in the Raise Lens directory whose stated focus includes circular economy. There are currently 23 of them: a mix of public agencies, foundations, development finance institutions, corporate programmes and climate investors. Each profile records what the funder backs, where it operates, whether it is open to unsolicited applications, and the opportunities it has published through Raise Lens.

Funders active in circular economy include Active Impact Investments, Barn Investments, Business Finland and 2 others. The mix matters when you are planning a raise: a public agency and a corporate venture arm fund the same circular economy work on very different timelines, at different cheque sizes and against different eligibility rules, so the right first approach is rarely the same one.

Funder records are refreshed continuously and enriched from each organisation's own published material, so focus areas and application routes reflect what the funder currently says rather than what it said when the directory was first built. Where a funder runs named programmes, those appear as individual opportunities you can track and save.