Former Arsenal midfielder Mathieu Flamini has become the chief executive of the biochemical startup he co-founded.
The Frenchman and a business partner, Pasquale Granata, set up GF Biochemicals in 2008 out of concern for the planet's future and the company's ability to produce solvents from levulinic acid has seen it receive significant investment in an industry worth an estimated €30bn (£25.6bn).
In a statement confirming Flamini's appointment, the company said it had raised €15m euros (£12.8m) in a funding round led by the venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners. The company, headquartered in the Netherlands but with views to expand in the United States, currently employs 50 people but that number is expected to increase.
“What we’re trying to achieve here is to tackle the chemical pollution,” Flamini said. “This investment is a first step of a major journey which will also move in the direction of developing key partnerships and agreements with large producers of household and industrial goods.”
GF Biochemical's growth has garnered plenty of speculation around Flamini's wealth but previous reports suggesting he is worth several billion pounds are misleading.
"Contrary to what I read, I do not have €30bn in my bank account," he said in 2020. "In fact, [€30bn] is the total value of the market we want to 'attack' with the new technologies we have developed in recent years.
"There was a misunderstanding. It’s as if we had given a single restaurant the value of the entire catering market in France"
More reasonable estimates place his wealth at around £20m.
The 38-year-old’s interest in the environment comes from growing up near the sea and seeing the impact of plastic in the water and on nearby beaches. He admitted to not knowing too much about the science at the beginning, when he was a 24-year-old at Arsenal about to earn a lucrative move to Milan, but has worked closely with universities and leading experts.
Flamini also heads up a personal care business called One Unity, alongside former team-mate Mesut Ozil, and he has founded an online magazine called The Bio Journal.
