Business Roundup

Superior Plus has agreed to sell its Erco Worldwide chemical business to the private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners for $725 million. Based in Ontario, Erco mainly produces sodium chlorate for use in pulp bleaching.

Bloom Biorenewables, a Swiss start-up, has raised almost $5 million to advance its technology for making products including fuels, plastics, and fragrances by biomass fractionation. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures-Europe.

Braskem will invest $61 million to expand its production of ethylene made from sugarcane ethanol. When the project is completed at the end of 2022, output at Braskem’s plant in Triunfo, Brazil, will expand by 30%, to 260,000 metric tons per year.

Ingevity will boost its caprolactone polyol capacity by 40% by adding capacity at its facility in DeRidder, Louisiana, which now makes pine chemicals. The firms says the improvements will be on line in early 2022.

E-magy, a Dutch developer of nanoporous silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries, has raised $6 million from the venture capital firm SHIFT Invest. E-magy says it will use the money to increase output at its pilot facility and accelerate qualification by auto and battery companies.

Vestaron has raised $18 million in a second round of funding led by Northpond Ventures. The start-up, based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, produces insecticides based on naturally occurring peptides that it produces via fermentation.

GlaxoSmithKline is ­expanding its collaboration with Vir Biotechnology ­beyond developing treatments for coronaviruses to include antibodies for influenza. GSK will pay Vir $225 million and boost its investment in the biotech firm by $120 million.

Evox Therapeutics has raised $95 million in series C financing to develop therapies for rare diseases using exosomes, a type of lipid vesicle, to deliver protein or RNA therapies into cells. Evox has partnerships with Eli Lilly and Company and Takeda Pharmaceutical.