The Circular Economy Investment Tracker (CEIT) maps private sector investments in the circular economy across nearly 100 economies. CEIT covers three key sectors — electronics & appliances, packaging, and textiles — and investments made between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2024. Investment data is classified according to circular economy activities defined in the Harmonized Circular Economy Finance Guidelines, providing a consistent framework for assessing and comparing investment flows across circular strategies.
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The CEIT complements other initiatives that map financial flows within the circular economy, each with a distinct scope and methodology. The CEIT defines and categorizes data according to the Harmonized Circular Economy Finance Guidelines and focuses on financial flows in three material-intensive sectors between 2018 and 2024. The Plastics Circularity Investment Tracker (PCIT), developed by The Circulate Initiative, tracks investments in plastics circularity solutions from 2018 to 2024 and includes non-packaging sectors. Unlike CEIT, it includes grants and accelerator or incubator programs that provide grants. The Circularity Gap Report Finance (CGRF), produced by Circle Economy, tracks commercial circular economy investment from both public and private sources between 2018 and 2023, and excludes project-level investments.
CEIT Key Findings
Based on publicly disclosed private sector investment data for circular economy activities in Electronics & Appliances, Packaging, and Textiles between 2018 and 2024, CEIT highlights the following trends:
- Economic distribution: 93% of investment volume was concentrated in high-income countries, despite emerging markets hosting much of the circular economy workforce. Of the 7% of investment directed to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), the top five countries received 87%, while the poorest and most vulnerable countries accounted for just 0.17%.
- Geographic distribution: Investment was heavily concentrated in North America and Europe, which together accounted for 84% of investment volume, while Africa represented just 0.2%.
- Investment trends: Investment activity peaked in 2021, suggesting the need for more systemic, value-chain-wide investment models to reverse this trend. Peak years varied by region and income group, with LMIC investment peaking later (2022) than high-income countries (2021).
- Type of activity: 62% of disclosed investment flowed into Value Recovery, indicating stronger investor confidence in established recycling and materials recovery solutions. Value Recovery also recorded the largest average disclosed transaction size ($66.9 million), followed by Circular Design & Production ($42.22 million), and Circular Use ($17.79 million).
CEIT Definitions and Criteria
1Region:
Africa
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Congo (Rep.), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt (Arab Rep.), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gabon, Gambia (The), Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Asia
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong SAR (China), India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Rep.), Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea (Dem. People's Rep.), Korea (Rep.), Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Macao SAR (China), Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen (Rep.)
Europe
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Channel Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man (UK), Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom
Latin America & the Caribbean
Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas (The), Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands (UK), Cayman Islands (UK), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao (Neth.), Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico (US), Sint Maarten (Neth.), St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Marten (Fr.), St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands (UK), Uruguay, Venezuela (RB), US Virgin Islands (US)
North America
Bermuda (UK), Canada, Greenland (Den.), United States
Oceania
American Samoa (US), Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia (Fr.), Guam (US), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia (Fr.), New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands (US), Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
2Country Income Group
As defined by the World Bank Group country classification by income level
3Activity Category
- Circular Design and Production: Design phase of products/assets/services that incorporates circular economy strategies or principles, including the reduction of material inputs and use of regenerative inputs, and increased ease of reuse, repair, or recycling. Production processes that reduce virgin raw material usage and increase production effectiveness.
- Circular Use: Lifetime extension of products and assets such as through repair, refurbishment, reuse, retrofitting, and remanufacturing.
- Value Recovery: Collection and sorting to enable circularity of end-of-life products and materials. Organic and non-organic material management, recycling, and recovery.
4Sector
Deals are classified based on the investee company’s primary sector(s) and cross-checked against the available project description.
- Electronics & Appliances: Covers consumer and commercial electronics (e.g., phones, laptops, servers) and appliances (e.g., washers, microwaves). Includes circular design, sustainable materials, repair/resale models, and e-waste collection and recycling.
- Packaging: Covers primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging made from plastic, metal, fiber, or glass. Includes recyclable/ reusable design, recycled or lower-impact inputs, and collection, sorting, and recycling systems.
- Textiles: Covers the full textiles and apparel/footwear value chain, including home and automotive textiles. Includes durability and repair, sustainable materials (e.g., recycled fibers), and textile recycling and material-efficiency technologies.
- Multi-Sector: Used for companies operating across more than one CEIT sector (e.g., a battery recycler serving both electronics and electric vehicles).
Last updated: December 2025