Octarine Bio raises €4.35M for sustainable dyeing tech

Octarine Bio, a Copenhagen-based biotech startup working on the development of new colours and sustainable dyeing technologies has raised €4.35 million in a new funding round. The investment is aimed at aiding the company accelerate the development of its offer as it prepares for commercialisation. Since early 2020, Octarine Bio has raised in excess of €12 million.

Toxicity

As we’ve seen from French startups Pili and Ever Dye, there’s an increasing interest from both consumers and thereby producers of all things colour to dramatically reduce the environmental toxicity that’s traditionally plagued the industry.

Specifically, in the textile industry, the dyeing process is responsible for over 2.4 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, 20 percent of the world’s wastewater, and 35 percent of all chemicals released into the environment. 

First, maybe first

Octarine claims to have a “first-in-industry” fermentation process, but given that Pili is also working on creating its hues with a fermentation process involve that also involves microbes, this first may be down to the procedure rather than the process.

The company’s €4.35 million funding round was led by Unconventional Ventures in tandem with Óskare Capital and The Footprint Firm, and saw participation from dsm-firmenich Venturing.

Octarine CEO and co-founder Nethaji Gallage commented:

“Octarine’s synthetic biology platform has allowed us to quickly iterate from one ingredient to validating our platform capabilities, and today we collaborate with global industry leaders on the path to commercialisation of our flagship products.”

Lead image via Octarine Bio. Photo: Uncredited.