A spinoff company from the Australian National University plans to shake up the garment industry with recycling of polyester, a commonly used fabric derived from petrochemicals. Now with fresh funding of AUD $100 million, the company is building up a family of biological catalysts with applications across a wide range of industries.
Samsara Eco sprung out the Research School of Chemistry at ANU during 2020 when veteran Aussie investors Main Sequence Ventures ran an ideathon on plastics reduction in conjunction with Woolworths Australia. With the nation in Covid lockdowns on and off, inspired by the ideathon, co-founder Paul Riley spent the next 12 months searching for commercial solutions to plastic recycling. With the aid of Prof. Colin Jackson from ANU, he eventually identified an interesting project from two aspirant ANU Ph.Ds that was aimed at developing enzymes for safely degrading plastics. The rest is history, as they say.
Main Sequence Ventures’ Phil Morle eloquently describes Jackson as a “hacker scientist”. So by March of 2021 the initial founders had raised $1 million in seed capital and began developing a set of enzymes that could get the job done. With a growing team and increasing interest from industry, it was not long before the company secured a partnership with Lululemon, a $35 billion sports apparel company based in North America. The first garments made from “enzymatically recycled polyester” hit Lululemon branded stores in 2024. Right now, with the fashion industry having such an uncomfortably large environmental footprint and customers demanding more progress on sustainability, the opportunities seem boundless.
Funds from the most recent raise will be deployed to scale up production at a facility closer to key markets in Asia. But in the meantime the company is constructing a tailor-made facility in Jerrabomberra, New South Wales very near to the Australian Capital city, Canberra. The astounding story of how Samsara Eco was developed is a testament to the value creation possible through close collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, industry and university science researchers.
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Image credit: Geof Sheppard via Wikimedia Creative Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0
