Berlin-based synthetic biology startup Cambrium has netted €8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Essential Capital, along with SNR, Valor Equity Partners, and HOF Capital. With this, the total funding raised by Cambrium accounts for €11 million, with prior funding from Merantix.
The company claims it will use the funds to translate the early successes of NovaColl into lasting impact as Cambrium’s manufacturing and commercial activities scale towards a full replacement of traditional animal-derived collagen. Also, it plans to use the funds to ensure the long-term success of NovaColl and scale its manufacturing and commercial activities for animal-free collagen production.
Sustainable alternative to animal-derived collagen
Led by CEO Mitchell Duffy, Cambrium designs, scales and manufactures novel molecular building blocks for use in personal care, fashion, and beyond. Its platform is empowered by converging advances in AI, automation, and synthetic biology, allowing for the development of innovative biomolecules for the above consumer applications.
Cambrium’s platform is powered by converging advances in AI, automation, and synthetic biology, allowing for the development of innovative biomolecules for consumer applications at an unprecedented rate. Using their highly data-driven and automated approach, the company commercialised its first molecule in less than two years.
The company’s NovaColl has been scientifically validated in third-party in vitro studies, which demonstrated a broad range of activities working to protect, maintain, and enhance native collagen holistically. The company believes that its technology can ignite a similar molecular revolution across industries, through a proliferation of materials and products that outperform alternatives while being environmentally friendly.
“We founded Cambrium to accelerate past nature’s innovation cycle, for novel molecules that can quickly scale to material impact,” said Mitchell Duffy, CEO at Cambrium. “I’m proud that we have been able to generate meaningful revenue with a bioindustrial ingredient at such an early, pre-seed stage, and that we’ve won support from the right investors for our next stage of growth.”
“The marriage of synthetic biology and AI is rewriting the playbook for molecular innovation,” said Ron Zori at Essential Capital, which led the funding round. “Cambrium is leading the way in this broader shift to reinvent the building blocks of industry, one molecule at a time. We believe their computational biology platform, as demonstrated by the rapid development and launch of NovaColl™, has the ability to repeatedly translate scientific innovation into high-performance, sustainable molecules supporting a variety of sectors, and we’re thrilled to be part of this journey.”
