Lactips: EIC Accelerator Backing for Milk-Protein Paper Coatings
Most paper food packaging is not really paper. Wrappers, sachets and cups carry a thin layer of plastic that keeps out grease, moisture and oxygen, and that layer is what makes them hard to recycle. Lactips, founded in 2014 near Saint-Étienne on research from the Université Jean Monnet, makes an alternative from casein, the main protein in milk: a material that behaves like plastic in use, dissolves in water and biodegrades.
The European Innovation Council paid €2,393,912 towards a two-year project to turn it into coatings for paper food packaging. The technical results, as the company reports them, were strong. Since then Lactips has raised €16 million and is doubling its factory. It has also lost about €4.5 million a year, and does not publish its revenue.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Lactips SA, SIREN 801 500 018
- Founded
- 2014, Université Jean Monnet spin-out
- Site
- Saint-Paul-en-Jarez, Loire, France
- Leadership
- Alexis von Tschammer (CEO since October 2022); Benoit Berton (chair)
- Products
- Casein-based thermoplastic pellets and paper coatings (CareTips)
- Investors
- SWEN Blue Ocean, GO Capital, Bpifrance SPI, BNP Paribas Développement, Sogive
- EIC project
- ECOLACTIPACK, 1 Jan 2022 to 31 Dec 2023, closed
- Staff
- About 50 (November 2024)
What Lactips Does Today
Lactips is now an industrial company rather than a lab. It has produced since late 2021 in a factory on a former dairy site in Saint-Paul-en-Jarez, and sells pellets of its protein-based material to packaging makers. In November 2024 it raised €16 million led by SWEN Capital Partners' Blue Ocean fund, with GO Capital's Impact Océan Capital, Bpifrance's SPI fund, BNP Paribas Développement and Sogive. It said the money would fund commercial development in Europe, expansion into the United States and Japan, R&D and production capacity. It then had 50 employees.
Capacity is growing too. As the only winner in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France 2030's "first factory" call, Lactips is installing a second production line by 2026 in a €10 million project, 30% of it subsidised, according to Le Journal des Entreprises.
The Technology: Plastic Made From Milk Protein
Lactips' core invention is a process that turns casein into a thermoplastic, a material that can be melted and processed on standard plastics equipment, while keeping the properties that make it useful for packaging: it blocks oxygen and grease and can be heat-sealed.
For ECOLACTIPACK the company applied it as a coating on paper. The CORDIS report claims oxygen, grease and sealing performance "comparable to conventional plastics", recovery of approximately 100% of the paper fibre because the coating dissolves in the recycling water, and biodegradation within 30 days. It also describes hybrid and fully plant-based formulations, meant to improve the material's life-cycle footprint beyond a dairy raw material.
What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The EIC project
The EU paid 70% of a €3.42M packaging project
ECOLACTIPACK ran from January 2022 to December 2023.
CORDIS project 190151437. Values in € millions.
The project ran from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2023. Its goal was a material that would "unlock plastic-free paper packaging for food": single-layer coated paper that protects food, can be recycled with paper and biodegrades. The report says brand owners could now buy the material as pellets and that commercialisation was planned for 2024.
- Barrier coating for paperDeliveredOxygen, grease and sealing performance reported as comparable to plastics.
- Recyclable and biodegradableReportedAbout 100% fibre recovery and 30-day biodegradation, per the company's report.
- Commercial launch in 2024PartialPellets on sale and capacity expanding; no customer volumes or revenue published.
- Independent validationNot publicNo third-party test results are cited in the EU record.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The record
From university lab to a second production line
Lactips has been funded by the EU twice, by the French state repeatedly and by a string of impact investors.
- 2014Company foundedSpun out of Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Étienne; SIREN 801 500 018
- 2017First EU grantHorizon 2020 project ECOLACTIFILM on water-soluble packaging, July 2017 to September 2019€1.49M
- Late 2021First factoryProduction starts on the former France Crème site in Saint-Paul-en-Jarez
- Jan 2022EIC project startsECOLACTIPACK: plastic-free coatings for paper food packaging€2.39M grant
- Dec 2023EIC project closesCasein coatings with plastic-like barriers; commercialisation planned for 2024
- Nov 2024Funding roundLed by SWEN Blue Ocean with GO Capital, Bpifrance's SPI fund, BNP Paribas Développement and Sogive€16M
- 2026Second line€10M capacity doubling, 30% subsidised under France 2030
French company register via Pappers and Societe.com, CORDIS, Bpifrance and Le Journal des Entreprises.
The Money
Lactips publishes its accounts but keeps its revenue confidential. The net results reported by Societe.com and Pappers show a steady loss of just under €4.5 million a year: €4.08 million in 2021, €4.48 million in 2024 and €4.61 million in 2025. The register lists no insolvency proceedings.
The cost
Two years of losses equal more than half the 2024 round
In € millions. The November 2024 round raised €16M; the 2024 and 2025 net losses together came to €9.09M. The accounts do not disclose revenue.
Bpifrance, 27 November 2024; filed accounts via Societe.com and Pappers.
Scale is the test
A factory, a second line and a €16 million round are signs of investor confidence. But the losses have not narrowed as the company moved from R&D to production, and without published sales it is impossible to tell how close the business is to covering its costs. The second line only pays off if packaging makers commit to volumes.
Why Europe Should Care
The EU's packaging rules push in Lactips' direction. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation aims to "make all packaging on the EU market recyclable in an economically viable way by 2030"; it entered into force in February 2025 and applies from 12 August 2026. Plastic-coated paper is harder to recycle than plain paper, and a coating that dissolves in the recycling water is designed to remove that obstacle. Lactips is also an example of EU and French public money working together: two EU grants (including €1.49 million for ECOLACTIFILM in 2017 to 2019), a state-run fund among its investors and a France 2030 subsidy for its factory.
What the project promised
A milk-protein coating that makes paper food packaging plastic-free, recyclable and compostable, on the market from 2024.
What the record shows
Strong reported material performance, a growing factory and fresh capital, but steady losses of about €4.5M a year and no public sales figures.
The Verdict
Reported material, unproven business
By the company's own reports, ECOLACTIPACK did what it set out to do in the lab and the pilot line, and Lactips has since secured the money and the capacity to sell at industrial scale. What the public record does not show is whether the market is buying. The company's losses have been flat for five years, and until it reports revenue, the EU's bet remains a bet on potential rather than on sales.
Lactips has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.
Industry
Materials and chemicalsBio-based materials
- Focus
- Bio-based polymers
- Coatings
- Technologies
- Biopolymers
- Keywords
- Plastic-free packaging
- Food packaging
- Milk protein
- Water-soluble materials
- Biodegradability