Led by Extantia with significant contributions from the NATO Innovation Fund, Promus Ventures, and Fund F, this oversubscribed seed round will enable Uplift360 to foster additional partnerships with major industry players and expand scale of production.
Uplift360, the advanced materials start-up transforming how aerospace, defence and industrial sectors recover and reuse high-value composite waste, announced today the successful close of its €7.4M seed funding round.
The round was led by Extantia, one of Europe’s leading deep tech venture funds, with significant contributions from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Promus Ventures and Fund F. This constitutes a significant milestone for deep-tech dual-use investments in advanced material resilience.
Advanced materials like carbon fibre and aramids underpin defence, aerospace and manufacturing and are critical to Europe’s ability to revitalise industrial capabilities more broadly. However, these materials currently face severe supply-chain bottlenecks due to geopolitical pressure and limited virgin fibre availability and, as they are built to last, contribute to a fast-growing global waste stream.
Uplift360 can help address this challenge through its proprietary technology, a chemical process that recovers advanced composite materials, resulting in the same quality output as inputted. Unlike recycling, Uplift360’s regeneration process is non-degenerative, giving them a true second life.
This seed funding will scale Uplift360’s proprietary technologies, enabling the regeneration of hard-to-treat advanced composite materials such as carbon fibre, aramid (e.g., Kevlar®) and hybrid laminates from aerospace, defence, wind energy and high-performance automotive sectors.
Sam Staincliffe, CEO & Co-Founder of Uplift360, said: “This investment is a clear signal that Europe intends 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.”
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 changing that: transforming end-of-life materials into high-quality feedstock while building resilient circular supply chains in the process. We’re proud to back Sam, Jamie, and the team as they build the circular backbone of the composites industry.”
Sander Verbrugge, Partner at the NATO Innovation Fund, said: “Durable, high-quality advanced materials are of strategic importance to securing the future of NATO nations. Uplift360’s platform is exactly the kind of dual-use innovation Europe needs — tackling a real supply-chain vulnerability, reducing carbon emissions and bolstering the resilience of the sectors that underpin European industrialisation and competitiveness.”
Carina Roth, Investment Manager at Fund F, said: “Uplift360 stands out due to Sam and Jamie’s exceptional synergy, deep industry expertise and drive to create an impact. Their team perfectly bridges deep-tech innovation with the operational maturity needed to scale, positioning them uniquely to turn composite waste into a sovereign industrial strength.”
Accelerating Deployment Across Europe
This financing enables Uplift360 to:
• Commission its first pilot-scale processing line in the UK in 2026 to enable higher volumes, real-world validation, and customer integration
• Expand partnerships with major aerospace, defence, automotive and energy OEMs
• Increase R&D into regenerated-fibre performance enhancement and new applications
• Build a distributed, scalable model for composite circularity across Europe
Uplift360 already works with major industrial partners such as Babcock on Eurofighter Typhoon end-of-life materials recovery, Leonardo on turning Merlin helicopter blades into UxV components, and a project with Rolls-Royce. As part of Europe’s growing ecosystem of dual-use and strategic-materials innovators with a strong presence in both the UK and Luxembourg, Uplift360 is incredibly well-positioned to secure and strengthen supply chains across Europe.