Blue biotech firm FlexSea raises £2M for sustainable seaweed bioplastic production

London-based blue biotech company FlexSea has raised a £2 million equity Seed round led by Indico Capital Partners, with the participation of RedRice Ventures, Btomorrow Ventures, Food Foundry, Vala Capital, ICON Capital, and Pente Capital.

Tackling the astounding amount of plastic produced annually, Flexsea has developed a durable seaweed-derived bioplastic to combat single-use packaging. Today's single-use packaging regularly ends up back in the oceans from which it once came as crude oil.

FlexSea's packaging is fully biodegradable in soil and marine environments and can be composted at home within eight to twelve weeks. What’s more, the startup claims the production process eliminates the use of strong chemicals and high temperatures. The seaweed used grows in 45-day cycles without the need of freshwater, arable land, pesticides, or fertilisers, making it more environmentally friendly to produce.

The fresh funding will fuel the growth of the firm across its UK and Portuguese teams.

“This is a turning point for the company as an entity and a great reward for the hard work and dedication of the whole team of ten amazing people who will benefit from this funding in their everyday research and development activities. We are heavily investing in equipment and machinery for in-house R&D, speeding up the process tremendously,” says Thibaut Monfort CTO of FlexSea. 

With an additional £1.3 million in grants received from Innovate UK and other institutions, FlexSea has received over £3 million in funding to date.

“FlexSea has the potential to change the pattern of human consumption of plastic and therefore change the sustainability path of our planet. We are proud to have led this investment and will back the founders in the next steps of product development, global partnerships and commercialisation,” says Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner of Indico Capital. 

Lead image via FlexSea. Photo: Uncredited.