Epoch Biodesign closes a round of 18.3 million dollars, with participation from Inditex

Business

Epoch Biodesign Research and Development Laboratory. Credits: Epoch Biodesign.

Disruptive British start-up Epoch Biodesign has announced the closing of a Series A financing round of 18.3 million dollars, with contribution from Spanish fashion giant Inditex. The new capital will be used to scale up the start-up’s current textile biorecycling solutions, with the construction of a first plant for commercial-scale production also in the works. It brings Epoch’s total funding to 34 million dollars.

Founded in London by British entrepreneur Jacob Nathan in 2019, Epoch is specialised in the development of plastic waste biorecycling technologies through the use of enzymes modified by artificial intelligence (AI), with applications in the field of textile recycling. Its mission is to solve one of the biggest problems currently affecting the planet: the excessive proliferation of waste, especially plastic and textile waste. Nathan thus set out to accelerate the plastic degradation process that already occurs in the natural world, which he calls "biorecycling" by enzymes.

Epoch to use the funding for developing UK-based production plant

This latest fundraising for Epoch was led by the German venture capital firm Extantia Capital, with further participation from the American venture capital firm Lowercarbon Capital, focused on investments in companies with the capacity to generate a positive impact on the planet; and the Spanish multinational Inditex, among other investors. Zara’s owner had already revealed its intention to back the firm, having stated last year that such investments reflected a commitment to move towards a more sustainable business model with a lower environmental impact.

Epoch Biodesign will now finance the expansion of its current library of plastic-devouring enzymes; it will double, in just a period of 12 months, the size of its current multidisciplinary team, currently made up of just over 30 chemists, biologists and software engineers; and it will accelerate the work for the construction of its first large-scale production plant. Located in the UK, Epoch plans to launch the forthcoming plant in 2025, where it hopes to scale up the development of its Nylon 6 recycling process and eventually open up to commercialising the materials. For this, the team is working towards an intended target of early 2028.

“Our goal is to make recycled plastic cheaper than virgin materials, which will reshape the environmental and economic future of the industry,” Epoch Biodesign highlighted in a press release. From this objective, “we have an exciting year ahead of us,” in which “we are building our first biorecycling plant, which will serve some of the most important clients in the textile industry,” said Nathan, founder and CEO of the start-up. Thanks to this latest round of investment, he added that “we are expanding our library of enzymes that 'eat' plastic to be able to cover an even broader mix of materials that were previously not recyclable.”

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.ES. It was translated to English using AI.

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