The Western Australia (WA) Indian Ocean coast is a haven for surfers, big waves (and big sharks). But what the bleach haired wave riders may not know is that the plastic combs they use for waxing their boards are made from Uluu, a product of local research into sustainable seaweed based materials. Founded in 2021 by ecologist Dr Julia Reisser and former M&A lawyer Michael Kingsbury, Perth-based Uluu grew out of Dr Reisser’s decade of research into ocean plastic pollution. With increasing concern around ocean borne microplastics, there’s never been a more important time to find a genuinely biodegradable alternative to fossil fuel based manufacturing materials.
Technology for the venture was developed at the University of Western Australia (UWA) within the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC), located on UWA’s Crawley campus in Perth. The $62 million facility is jointly supported by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, CSIRO and the Western Australia State government. The centre is home to more than 300 marine researchers working on biodiversity, fisheries, climate change, oceanography and marine conservation. The core innovation is a low-cost, saltwater fermentation process that converts farmed seaweed into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). These are a class of biodegradable polymers that can be processed on existing plastic manufacturing equipment, but which fully compost and break down in the ocean without shedding microplastics.
Uluu’s funding has scaled alongside its ambitions to displace traditional plastics. An early $1.3 million round supported lab optimisation, followed by an $8 million raise in 2022 led by eminent Aussie deep tech investors Main Sequence Ventures. In late 2025, the company closed a $16 million Series A led by German growth investor Burda Principal Investments with Main Sequence returning alongside Novel Investments, Startmate, Fairground, and Trinity Ventures. The new capital is earmarked for scaling from a 100kg-a-year pilot into a 10-tonne demonstration plant based in Western Australia.
This next step sets up Uluu to supply commercial volumes rather than samples. The monetisation strategy leans on partnerships rather than owning a full supply chain however. The company is already working with some well known global brands, such as Quiksilver (surf apparel) and Audi (motor vehicle interiors). A joint project with Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) and the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres is currently investigating spinning Uluu pellets into textile yarn. By positioning PHA as a “drop-in” material compatible with existing plastic-processing infrastructure, Uluu aims to lower the barrier for manufacturers to switch. Seaweed farming, ocean carbon capture and naturally compostable plastic combine to make a powerful blue economy venture proposition.
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Image credit: LBM CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
