ReCircuLab

What ReCircuLab does

ReCircuLab is a circular R&D platform founded in 2024 in Puerto Varas, Chile, that transforms industrial food waste into high-value products through applied science, laboratory prototyping, and artificial intelligence. The company serves the global food processing industry — particularly salmon farming, mussel farming, aquaculture, and broader agribusiness — converting waste streams such as salmon skins, mussel shells, and protein sludge into commercial products including marine collagen for cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and functional foods. The company's core technology is the proprietary ACI (Circular Artificial Intelligence) platform, which integrates scientific literature, regulatory databases, market data, and cost models to identify and accelerate waste valorization opportunities, and is complemented by an in-house laboratory in Puerto Varas equipped for calcination, hydrolysis, compositional characterization, and functional product prototyping.

The business model is built on professional services and project-based R&D engagements sold through direct enterprise field sales, with CEO Gonzalo Urquieta serving as the primary commercial contact. ReCircuLab is positioning itself to help multinational food companies meet EU Green Deal and CSRD circular economy compliance requirements, and generates revenue through technical characterization, laboratory prototyping, commercial validation, and industrial symbiosis services. The company also maintains a small product portfolio (Marine Collagen, Mussel Shells, ACI) that demonstrates the methodology in action, although these appear to function primarily as reference projects rather than scaled commercial product lines.

The company is privately held, founder-controlled, and funded to date primarily by a USD $25,000 grant from the Acme Smoked Fish Foundation (January 2026). Strategic alliances with Santina Group (legal/commercial), Patentia (IP), Zero Company (climate metrics), and DeValor (shared lab) provide operational and channel support. Visibility is driven by the ACME Chile Award 2025 (1st place, Emerging category) and the SICA 2025 award, alongside earned media in Mundo Acuícola, InfoSalmon, SalmonExpert, Perishable News, SeafoodSource, and Undercurrent News.

Name

ReCircuLab

Legal name

ReCircuLab

Website

https://recirculab.cl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ReCircuLab is a circular R&D platform that converts industrial food waste into high-value products through applied science, laboratory prototyping, and proprietary AI, serving the global food processing industry from Puerto Varas, Chile.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industrial Waste Valorization R&D Services

NAICS

Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging (3117)

SIC

Food And Kindred Products (2000)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Symbiosis & Byproduct Exchange Platforms (EUAIANAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Reuse & Resale / Recommerce Operations (EUAIANAC), Parts Harvesting & Component Reuse (EUAIANAF)

Keywords

• Waste valorization services
• Circular economy R&D
• Industrial symbiosis
• Aquaculture waste upcycling
• Marine collagen extraction

Headquarters

HQ city

Puerto Varas

HQ country

Chile

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. R&D Services and Consulting: Circular R&D platform providing technical characterization, laboratory prototyping, and commercial validation services to transform industrial waste into high-value products. Revenue generated through project-based engagements with food industry clients.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

ReCircuLab is a circular R&D platform that transforms industrial food waste (salmon skins, mussel shells, protein sludge) into high-value products. It offers an integrated stack of Technical Characterization, in-house Laboratory Prototyping, Commercial Validation, and Industrial Symbiosis services, all accelerated by its proprietary ACI (Circular Artificial Intelligence) platform. Target customers are global food-industry enterprises seeking to convert environmental liabilities into new revenue streams while meeting circular-economy regulatory requirements.

Product overview

ReCircuLab operates as a unified circular R&D platform that transforms industrial food waste into high-value products through an integrated methodology. The core offerings consist of the ACI (Circular Artificial Intelligence) AI platform for accelerating innovation, combined with product development services including Marine Collagen extraction from salmon skins and Mussel Shell valorization. The company provides end-to-end services spanning Technical Characterization, Laboratory Prototyping, Commercial Validation, and Industrial Symbiosis, all supported by the ACI platform for data-driven decision-making throughout the waste valorization process.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Time-to-market reduced from years to weeks for waste valorization projects
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PatentiacoreTechnology or Integration · 30 September 2025Strategic alliance integrating Patentia AI technology into the development process to evaluate intellectual property linked to technologies developed by ReCircuLab for waste valorization solutions.
• Zero CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 8 December 2024Collaboration integrating carbon footprint measurement and environmental impact analysis into every valorization project, ensuring climate metrics are embedded in the circular economy solutions developed.
• DeValorcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 November 2024Shared laboratory collaboration with DeValor in a common space to drive regenerative biotechnology and high-impact circular solutions. Located in Puerto Varas, Chile.
• Santina GroupcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 15 October 2024Strategic alliance with Santina Group, a firm specialized in legal and commercial solutions that accompanies ReCircuLab in all legal aspects of their initiatives including contracts, compliance, and commercial arrangements.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Carbios: French-listed biotech company developing enzyme-based processes for plastic and textile circularity. A broader circular-bioeconomy incumbent with similar science-led R&D approach but focused on plastics rather than food waste.
• Circa Group: Australian company operating a biorefinery converting cellulose-rich waste into bio-based levulinate chemicals. A larger incumbent in waste valorization with similar circular-economy positioning but broader industrial focus beyond food.

Emerging players

• Bloom Biorenewables: Swiss startup developing biomass-to-materials chemistry using lignin-rich feedstocks. Comparable as a science-led emerging player in bio-based materials and circular chemistry; intersects thematically but targets different feedstocks and end products.
• BIOHM: UK circular biotech developing bio-based materials and mycelium-based products from organic waste streams. Comparable as an emerging circular-bioeconomy player leveraging waste feedstocks and applied biotech R&D.
• Citrine Informatics: US-based AI platform for materials science R&D acceleration, applying machine learning to reduce experimentation cycles. Closely parallels ReCircuLab's ACI thesis of using AI to compress R&D timelines, but in materials rather than food waste.

Others

• Bota Bio: Industrial biotech company providing fermentation and bioprocess development services to convert biological inputs into high-value outputs. An adjacent enabling player in bioprocess R&D, sharing the fermentation/process-design DNA underpinning ReCircuLab's prototyping layer.

Direct peers

• Hofseth BioCare: Norwegian-listed company that valorizes Atlantic salmon processing byproducts into nutraceuticals, pet food ingredients, and human-grade nutrients. Directly comparable to ReCircuLab's salmon-skin collagen and hydrolysate pathway from a closely adjacent geography.
• Kaffe Bueno: Danish circular bioeconomy company extracting high-value compounds (oils, antioxidants, sugars) from spent coffee grounds. Shares the same waste-to-value, characterization-plus-protoyping model for a food-industry waste stream.
• CuanTec: Welsh biotech extracting chitosan from shellfish (langoustine and mussel) waste for use as a sustainable bioplastic. Closely mirrors ReCircuLab's mussel shell valorization project in feedstock, scientific approach, and target markets.
• ReFeed Global: Danish circular-economy platform turning industrial food waste into animal feed and ingredients through data-driven valorization. Directly comparable as a project-based circular R&D service business targeting food industry waste.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/recirculab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ReCircuLab