Terra Bioware, a climate-positive biomaterials company, raises pre-seed led by Rebalance
Petroplastics are a huge and growing problem with only 1% being renewable and biodegradable today. Microplastics exist in our air, food, water, cosmetics, and even inside us. While sustainable alternatives like plant-based bioplastics exist, they are priced 3–5x higher and produced from decentralized feeds, thus limiting their commercial scale adoption.
PHAs are natural biomolecules that can be produced by microbes at scale in an industrial environment. PHAs are a diverse family of 150+ natural biopolymer grades that mimic the properties of petroplastics. They are home-compostable and fully biodegradable in all environments (recycled by nature!).
Founded by Shruti Singh in 2022, Terra Bioware is on a mission to accelerate the transition to climate-positive biomaterials for a circular & net zero planet.
A $1 Trillion Opportunity: Their next-generation biomanufacturing technology upcycles carbon emissions to produce high-value PHAs. They aim to commercialize PHA biopolymers and their specialty derivatives for high-value applications across nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and medicine.
“I see climate change as a risk that can be transformed into a commercial opportunity. It was a closely held dream to bring together the best scientific minds and close the gap between innovation and industry as we solve for planetary health. We believe that a systems-led approach informed by deep tech will empower us to make PHA bioplastics an affordable and functional solution by 2027” said Shruti Singh, Founder and CEO of Terra Bioware.
Shruti Singh is a former intelligence professional. She brings her expertise in strategic risk analysis to her passion for climate innovation & business development. She has previously guided PEs, institutional funds, Fortune 500 companies, banks, and sovereign wealth funds on investment decisions across APAC.
Terra Bioware’s team consists of principal scientists who are part of the core R&D team, Akila Thirumalai leads biomanufacturing and Praveen Singh heads operations. Akila is a passionate bioengineer and a specialist in advanced biotechnology. Praveen is an industrial fermentation expert with prior experience with PHA production from climate-positive feeds.
We’re thrilled to announce that Terra Bioware closed its pre-seed round led by Rebalance Angel Community with participation from Seeders and a clutch of angels in 2023.
“We met Shruti very early in her journey when she was building her initial team. Climate change is multifaceted but the single most important problem of the century. We believe climate risk mitigation and management is a function of technology that helps us measure the damage and deep systems transformation to offer commercially scalable renewable alternatives for unsustainable industrial processes or depletion of resources. Terra Bioware is striving to make bioplastics affordable solving for a smoother transition at scale and we’re excited to be a part of this revolution” added Aishwarya Malhi and Vikas Kumar, Co-founders at Rebalance and Rebalance Angel Community.
Terra Bioware was also awarded the Niti Aayog Grant worth $120K in 2022. They were part of Rebalance’s Accelerator Cohort 05 and the BITS Pilani Cleantech Pre-Incubation Program. They also won the ‘Biochallenge 22’ at BIRAC Bionest.
Led by a team of experts, they have achieved a milestone by translating the production technology from lab to industrial scale in a competitively shorter period. They are focused on product innovation and working with partners to showcase PHA value across nutraceuticals, cosmetics, medicine, and packaging. They plan to build a next-generation biorefinery for 1 kiloton per annum commercial PHA production and enter high-value market segments in 2024.
“Plastic pollution has remained a major concern for years with alternatives that have struggled to offer the high-value commercial use cases or have simply been unaffordable at scale. I’m thrilled to back Terra Bioware on this journey to build a circular and net zero planet with next-generation biomaterials,” said Lloyd Mathias, Business Strategist and Independent Director.
…
About Rebalance Angel Community:
We bring together seasoned and aspiring angel investors who understand the importance of backing diverse founding teams, early on.
You can sign up here to become a member at Rebalance and invest with us.
