Today’s issue is an update on what’s been happening in the last two weeks in the Next-Gen Material space both outside the walls of House of BioDesign and within.

• Epoch Biodesign Close Seed Round With $18.3 M

• Circ Latest Funding Round Rasies $25 M

• A New Collective Voice For Recycled Textiles in Policy

• Modern Synthesis achieves Butterfly Mark Certification 

• A New Behind The Breakthroughs Piece to be released

The BioDesign Newsletter

Issue #042

Epoch Biodesign Close Seed Round With $18.3M

Epoch Biodesign closes its Series A rounds with $18.3M (£14.1M). The biotechnology company is challenging the plastic pollution crisis with plastic-eating enzymes. The round was led by Extantia Capital along with other climate-focused venture capital investors among which include Zara owner, Inditex. 

Read more here >>> 

Circ Latest Funding Round Rasies $25M

Textile recycling company, Circ raise $25M (£19.3M). The round was led by, investment and asset management company, Taranis through their Carbon Ventures fund focusing on technologies which progress circular solutions. Once again inditex is a notable investor, backing the round along with repeated public collaborations between Zara and Circ. This investment will fuel the leap from pilot scale to industrial scale guided by the knowledge and experience of the Taranis team.

Read more here >>>

The T2T Alliance Creates a Collective Voice for Next-Gen Materials in Policy

Earlier in the year Circ established the Fiber Club in collaboration with brands such as Everlane, EILEEN FISHER and Zalando with the goal to make a library of collective resources accessible and affordable to accelerate the scaling of next-gen materials.

Circ is now part of another new alliance, T2T Alliance, alongside other textiles recycling companies including Circulose, RE&Up and Syre. 

The Alliance stated its mission is to “advocate for textile-to-textile recyclers in policy decision-making”.  This aligned with the European Commission's start to outlining the detailed ESPR ecodesign requirements for particular product categories, including textiles. The first act of the Alliance is providing expert input on the Commission's report which considers the recycled content for textile apparel. 

The Alliance have stated they will advocate for: “

• The promotion of textile-to-textile content and recyclability as core requirements in the ESPR ecodesign requirements for textiles

• A closed-loop textile recycling approach which includes post-industrial, pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.

• Clarifying misconceptions about the textile recycling industry in the report (for example, by debunking the assumption that allowing post-industrial waste to fulfil recycled content targets would incentivise its overproduction)

• A wide range of verification methods for tracing recycled material “

Modern Synthesis achieves Butterfly Mark Certification 

Modern Synthesis has become Butterfly Mark Certified. This makes the biomaterials company the first material supplier to achieve the certification. The belief at Modern Synthesis is that “accountability should scale alongside innovation”, stating that in their efforts through the assessment process, Modern Synthesis improved their score by 21%  to achieve an overall rating of 74%.

The Butterfly Mark is a sustainability certification awarded by Positive Luxury, an organisation dedicated to driving positive change in the luxury industry. The certification aims to combat the waves of greenwashing by putting brands through a rigorous assessment based on ESG factors and standards determined by international agreements and global frameworks. The assessment to achieve the certification is taken every two years to ensure that the standards have risen with moving expectations and legislation. 

Read more here >>>

Why Are Chocolate Prices Rising?

At the House of BioDesign we took a month break from our Behind The Breakthrough series.

But now we are back. We have new writers, new ideas and incredible pieces in the pipeline. The next piece to be published will explore the potential of fermentation to tackle the crisis being faced by the chocolate market. Keep your eyes peeled!

See you in two weeks,

Ariyana Rayatt & The House of BioDesign Team

The BioDesign Newsletter is an independent publication from The House of BioDesign.

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