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Plinius Labs, a Belgian research company in the bioeconomy sector, is transforming agricultural waste into bio-based premium ingredients for cosmetics and food. The company has developed AMPLE – a new process to extract natural compounds from flax shives – and sought Green Assist support to scale it up and overcome financial and industrialisation challenges.

Plinius Labs is built on the belief that plant waste is full of useful natural chemicals. Too often treated as simple waste, biomass contains molecules that serve essential roles in nature – from protection to healing. Plinius Labs works to extract and valorise this potential, combining 40+ years of green chemistry expertise with cutting-edge R&D to develop natural ingredients and help industries reduce their environmental footprint.

The company’s mission is therefore to replace petroleum‑derived additives with greener alternatives and, to move forward, it needed to build a pilot plant and attract funding. The team faced challenges around investment planning, market positioning, and how to scale the AMPLE process efficiently and sustainably. That’s when they turned to Green Assist for help.

Between July and October 2025, Green Assist provided expert advisory support tailored to the project’s needs. This included guidance on developing a business model, refining the company’s value proposition, and identifying potential investors and clients. The expert also helped the team strengthen their financial strategy and assess how to grow in line with circular economy goals.

Thanks to Green Assist, Plinius Labs is now ready to implement its pilot project and bring its eco-innovation closer to the market. With clear business and financial plans in place, the company is better equipped to demonstrate the environmental and commercial value of its work and to form key partnerships.

“Green Assist boosted the scaling-up of Plinius Labs. Potential investors were successfully identified as well as target customers for partnering contracts in the development of our proprietary process to produce bio-based cosmetic components. The assigned expert showed dedication and expertise, keeping our team focused and enhancing the market credibility of Plinius Labs’ core competences in green chemistry,” said Yves Boonen, CEO of the company.

Green Assist aims to build a pipeline for high-impact green investment projects in sectors related to biodiversity, natural capital and circular economy, as well as in non-environmental sectors. 

Learn more about how Green Assist can help you get free tailored support for your green project or contact us at cinea-green-assistec [dot] europa [dot] eu (cinea-green-assist[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu). To request advisory services from Green Assist, simply fill out this short form.