French waste management company Veolia announced that it has acquired a startup focusing in nuclear waste cleaning called Kurion. The acquisition was made with $350 million while Veolia excepts that the new business unit would bring an annual revenue of $350-$400 million by 2020.

The revenue expected by Veolia to be drawn by Kurion would include about $250 million from waste management and $100-$150 from decommissioning nuclear installations, as reported by Reuters. Veolia also sees Kurion as a key to obtain a part of a market seen worth $210 billion over the next 15 years.

Veolia was a transnational company founded in 1853 and is considered as one of a main giant waste management company in many countries. According to PR Newswire, the French company has signed a collaboration agreement with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in 2013 and since then has determined to expand its business in the nuclear cleanup sector. 

Previously, Veolia has also formed a subsidiary called Astelaris, which specifies its business in categorizing waste and assessing nuclear facilities. Thus, acquiring nuclear waste cleaning startup Kurion is a completing move to achieve Veolia's goal in the nuclear sector. Besides Asteralis, Veolia has also established other subsidiaries that could directly or indirectly help the company developing its performance in this new sector.

"Bringing Kurion and its employees into Veolia is going to enable us to develop a world-class integrated offer in nuclear facility cleanup and treatment of low-level radioactive waste around the world," Chairman and CEO of Veoila, Antoine Frérot, stated. He also expect the change to pave a way for Veolia, along with Kurion, to be pioneers in the treatment and recovery and resources. Frérot also believes that Kurion is a perfect partner for his company to support and facilitate growth.

Kurion itself is a Silicon Valley-backed company founded in 2008. It is one of few international firms that was involved in the clean-up of the Fukushima nuclear incident in 2011. Fortune reported that the success in Japan had brought big revenue to the company, with annual sales of $100 million and more than 200 employees. Since then, the company has been often regarded to as one of the most successful greentech startup, which is a huge achievement for an early Silicon Valley cleantech startup.

This acquisition deal is considered as a huge positive step both for Veolia and Kurion. With this collaboration, Veolia is expecting to see huge opportunities as well as big revenues and market portions in the future.