Octarine, a leading synthetic biology platform company developing new colours and sustainable dyeing technologies to transform the fashion and food industries, today announced the completion of its oversubscribed €4.35 million ($4.6 million) funding round to accelerate and scale its flagship products, extending its total funding received to date to over €12M. The round was led by Óskare Capital, Unconventional Ventures, and The Footprint Firm with participation from dsm-firmenich Venturing.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Nov. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Octarine's OB-CLR™ is a response to the pressing environmental and societal issues within the textile dyeing industry. The company employs a first-in-industry precision fermentation process to develop a vibrant spectrum of sustainable nature-based dyes which can be seamlessly integrated into an organisation's existing supply chain, fuelling positive change one vibrant hue at a time.
Currently, the vast majority of textile dyes are synthetic and derived from petroleum, thus constituting a highly unsustainable and damaging production process. In addition to petroleum being a non-renewable raw material, the production of synthetic dyes requires extreme conditions – such as high temperatures – and releases toxic chemicals into the environment. The textile dyeing process is also a major environmental concern, being responsible for over 2.4% of all greenhouse gas emissions, 20% of the world's wastewater, and 35% of all chemicals released into the environment. There is also evidence indicating that many synthetic textile days are toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic. Octarine's microbially fermented colours provide sustainable alternatives to both the production of textile dyes, as well as the dyeing process. Octarine's colour program is focused on violacein and its derivatives, providing a highly sought-after and difficult-to-source colour spectrum, while Octarine's proprietary textile dyeing process further enables a significant reduction in environmental footprint as its colours can be dyed directly onto natural and synthetic fibres under ambient conditions without any additional chemicals or mordants.
These colours are currently undergoing rapid development in collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks, announced earlier this year. This funding round will support Octarine Bio to scale and optimize its colours in preparation for commercialisation.
Alexandre Ouimet-Storrs, President and Co-Founder of Óskare Capital, stated that "Óskare Capital scouted and first invested in Octarine three years ago and they have made phenomenal progress since then, expanding its pipeline and validating its platform beyond initial products. The sustainable dye product line is truly ground-breaking, and we hope to see many more innovative products come to market thanks to Octarine's strong biotech platform."
"The textile industry must switch to a more aggressive decarbonization trajectory in order to reduce its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution and, ultimately, climate change. Octarine's ground-breaking technology leads the way in transitioning the industry towards sustainable practices and away from harmful synthetic dyes. With Nethaji and Nick's expertise, execution power, and visionary leadership, we are confident they will make a lasting impact on the fashion industry, making us a proud backer of Octarine," commented Thea Messel, Founder and General Partner at Unconventional Ventures.
"We are truly excited to partner with Octarine on this next part of their journey and are keen to help accelerate success and ultimately enable the fashion industry to take a much-needed leap towards a more sustainable future. We are deeply impressed with what the team has achieved and find their scientific foundation and truly novel dyeing solution second to none," commented Jonas Ahm-Lundgren, Chief Investment Officer at The Footprint Firm.
Nethaji Gallage, CEO and co-founder of Octarine, stated that "at Octarine, we are driven by a more sustainable future where pressing environmental and social challenges are met with innovative, game-changing, and sustainable solutions. Octarine's strong synthetic biology platform has allowed us to quickly iterate from one ingredient to the next validating our platform capabilities, and today we collaborate with global industry leaders on the path to commercialization of our flagship products. We're thrilled to welcome Unconventional Ventures and The Footprint Firm on our exciting journey, and we're pleased to receive follow-on investments from existing investors and greatly appreciate their continued support in our commitment to pioneering innovative solutions that can truly transform our world."
About Octarine Bio
Octarine harnesses the science of nature to pioneer planetary solutions through exploration and innovation. Driven by a sustainable future where pressing environmental and social challenges are met with transformative solutions. Grounded in a robust scientific foundation and unrivalled expertise in cell factory engineering, precision fermentation and enzymatic enhancement, we proudly unveil world-leading synthetic biology platforms, poised to transform entire industries for the betterment of society and the planet. Utilizing our proprietary fermentation-based manufacturing platform, our flagship product is a range of environmentally responsible, nature-based dyes in commercially elusive, vibrant colours. Employing an innovative dyeing process, they can be efficiently and directly dyed on a range of natural and synthetic fabrics under ambient conditions and without the use of harmful chemicals. Notably, these vibrant dyes can also be scaled up and seamlessly integrated into our commercial partners' existing supply chains; because we believe that colours shouldn't come at an environmental cost.
For more information, visit octarinebio.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Media Contact
Nethaji Gallage, Octarine Bio, 45 27639353, info@octarinebio.com
SOURCE Octarine Bio
Share this article