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altM founders Yugal (L) and Apoorv (R)
Biomaterials startup altM has raised $3.5 million or Rs 29.1 crore in a seed funding round led by Omnivore, with participation from Theia Ventures, Thai Wah Ventures, Sanjiv Rangrass, Neha Mudaliar, Maninder Gulati, Mirik Gogri, and Paula Mariwala.
According to the company's statement, the raised capital would bring forth an engineering- and manufacturing-driven lens to circularity and sustainability.
altM was founded in 2022 by Apporv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, former colleagues at Tesla in the US. Apoorv, a University of California, Berkeley, and Delhi College of Engineering graduate, has held significant positions at Prometheus Fuels, Tesla, and Maruti Suzuki.
Yugal, an MIT and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology alumnus, has experience leading engineering projects and overseeing product launches at Tesla. The team also includes Harshad Velankar, who brings over two decades of experience from various roles in India, the US, and South Africa, including leading research at HPCL and positions at Praj Industries and Reliance Life Sciences.
altM aims to develop and manufacture scalable biomaterials to help large industries reduce their carbon footprints across their supply chains.
The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as their raw material to produce advanced materials as alternatives to unsustainable incumbents. Given its sustainability potential and functional properties, lignocellulosic biomass offers a unique technological appeal to form a family of materials.
Apoorv Garg, CEO and Co-Founder at altM, said, “The scale-up of technology from a laboratory bench to commercial production is not a trivial undertaking. Production scale-up is often the death valley for biotech startups. Our focus on go-to-market strategy, execution, and production scale-up will be the differentiator to most endeavours we see in the world of biomaterials today.”
Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said, “With Apoorv and Yugal’s background in manufacturing excellence, altM’s entry into industrial alternative materials will hasten the global shift towards sustainability and circularity. Omnivore is very excited to be a part of their journey as we kick off our new fund.”
($1 = INR 83.22)
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