altM | $10.3M (~₹97.5 Cr Series A)

Founders: Apoorv Garg (CEO), Yugal Raj Jain (COO)

Founded: 2022

HQ: Bengaluru

Sector: CleanTech / Biomaterials

What they do

→ Makes specialty chemicals and biomaterials from agricultural residue like sugarcane bagasse and rice straw

→ Splits cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin from a single feedstock to create multiple products

→ Targets alternatives to fossil-derived raw materials in beauty and personal care, textiles, construction, packaging and industrial chemicals

→ First products include a lignin-derived SPF booster, a cellulose-based rheology modifier and bio-derived ferulic acid

The Funding

→ Raised $10.3 million (~₹97.5 crore) in Series A funding

→ Led by new investors Rainmatter and Mela Ventures, with existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact, plus strategic angels

→ Follows a $3.5M seed in 2023 led by Omnivore

→ Capital earmarked for a 1,000-tonne-per-year commercial plant by 2028, R&D, customer qualification and sales and engineering teams

Why it matters

→ Runs a 70-tonne-per-year pilot plant in Bengaluru’s Electronic City, with purchase orders expected this quarter and first launches the next

→ Works with nearly 30 beauty and personal care customers, 16 to 18 of them in active testing, and cut molecule development time from 12 to 15 months to under six

→ Has filed six patents in India and plans a 10,000-tonne-per-year capacity over five years

→ Garg says altM is building a new source of industrial carbon from agricultural residue, while Rainmatter’s Abhinav Negi called moving supply chains away from fossil inputs a critical challenge

Can agricultural waste replace fossil carbon in everyday products at industrial prices, or is cost parity the wall every bio-based material hits?