Uplift360 has raised an oversubscribed €7.4M seed round to accelerate the regeneration of high-value composite materials across Europe. The round was led by Extantia with strong participation from the NATO Innovation Fund, Promus Ventures, and Fund F.
The capital will fund Uplift360’s first pilot-scale production line in the UK, scheduled for 2026, enabling high-volume processing and real-world validation with global aerospace, defence, energy, and automotive customers. It also strengthens collaboration with established partners, including Rolls-Royce, Babcock, and Leonardo, while expanding R&D into new applications and performance enhancements. The company aims to build a scalable model for composite circularity across Europe, ensuring secure supply chains at a time of mounting geopolitical pressures.
Europe’s composite crisis
Advanced composites, such as carbon fibre, aramids, and hybrid laminates, are the backbone of modern aerospace, defence systems, wind turbines, and performance vehicles. Yet Europe discards these materials at end-of-life by burning or burying them, despite facing acute shortages of virgin fibres. These shortages stem from geopolitical constraints, limited production capacity, and soaring demand across industrial sectors.
To make matters worse, these materials are engineered for durability, making them exceptionally difficult to treat or recover. As a result, Europe is simultaneously running out of critical inputs while generating a rapidly growing waste stream of the very substances it needs most. The region has lacked a viable circular solution that returns fibres to original performance standards until now.
The team behind the mission
UK/Luxembourg-based Uplift360 was co-founded in 2021 by Sam Staincliffe and Jamie Meighan. It is focused on recycling advanced materials like body armour (Kevlar) and carbon fibre for a circular economy. Both founders have extensive backgrounds in defence and humanitarian operations.
Uplift360 emerges from Europe’s deep-tech and dual-use innovation ecosystem, with strong backing from the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator, Luxembourg’s Directorate of Defence and Innovate UK. Their partnerships with names such as Babcock and Leonardo reflect early trust in both the team’s expertise and the technology’s readiness for demanding environments like aerospace and defence.
The company has also been recognised as one of Tech Nation’s Top 25 Climate Tech Companies to Watch in 2026, underscoring its role in shaping the next wave of circular-materials innovation. Operating between the UK and Luxembourg, the founders bring a vision centred on solving a structural industrial challenge rather than offering incremental recycling improvements.
Turning waste into virgin-quality materials
At the core of Uplift360’s work is a proprietary chemical regeneration process that restores composite materials, carbon fibre, Kevlar-class aramids, and hybrid laminates to original performance quality. Unlike traditional recycling, which degrades strength and limits applications, the company’s non-degenerative process produces output that matches virgin fibre standards. This allows regenerated materials to re-enter high-performance supply chains without compromise.
The technology has already been tested in demanding use cases. Uplift360 and Babcock are recovering materials from Eurofighter Typhoon parts. With Leonardo, they’re converting Merlin helicopter blades into components for uncrewed systems. A project with Rolls-Royce further demonstrates the technology’s relevance to next-generation aerospace manufacturing. The dual-use nature of the platform means the same regeneration method serves defence, commercial aviation, wind energy, and high-performance automotive sectors.
Why does this matter?
Europe’s race to secure critical materials is intensifying, and Uplift360 offers a practical path to resilience. Their approach addresses supply shortages, reduces reliance on geopolitically sensitive virgin fibre sources, and cuts emissions by transforming waste into a valuable resource.
This seed round positions Uplift360 to scale a technology that supports both strategic autonomy and industrial decarbonisation, two priorities that Europe can no longer afford to treat separately.
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.”