A spinoff company from Australian National University (ANU) plans to shake up the garment industry through enzymatic recycling of polyester, a commonly used fabric derived from petrochemicals. Now with recent 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 originally 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.
Check out this video from young scientist and Samsara Eco co-founder Dr Vanessa Vongsouthi and her colleague Dr Matthew Spence explaining a lab scale process for making “enzymatically recycled polyester“.
With the fashion industry having such an uncomfortably large environmental footprint and customers demanding more progress on sustainability the way forward seemed clear. The project had piqued the interest of both industry and investors. Main Sequence Ventures’ investor Phil Morle eloquently described Professor Jackson as a “hacker scientist”. 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 globally, it was not long before the company secured a partnership with Lululemon, a $35 billion sports apparel company based in North America. First garments hit Lululemon branded stores in 2024.
Interested in science research commercialisation? Click on this invite link to join our free research and business collaboration channel on Discord. Meet potential co-founders, investors and industry contacts.
In late 2025 the company completed construction of a tailor-made facility in Jerrabomberra, New South Wales, very near to the Australian capital city, Canberra. However a key focus is to be closer to markets in Asia, so with Temasek as a foundational investor, a facility in Singapore was quickly established. Lately team members have been connecting and showcasing at industry conferences and taking time out in the community to support various habitat and circular economy initiatives. There has even been a recent article about Samsara Eco featured in the Wall Street Journal, as the company sets up for the next capital round.
The astounding story of how Samsara Eco was developed is very much a testament to the value creation possible through close collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, industry and university science researchers.
Genius ReFi connects researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and industry to build high value science-based ventures.
Join our free collaboration channel on Discord
Image credit: Geof Sheppard via Wikimedia Creative Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0
