Hi, climate friends 👋 

Welcome to another issue of The Climate Scout!

Today at a glance:

• Introducing Polyose Bio

• Detailing their business model, tech, traction and team

• Why do we need this now?

• What is their target climate impact?

• How you can help them!

-  Angelica 💜

Featured Startup: Polyose Bio

Today’s climate startup feature is Polyose Bio. Polyose Bio employs a first-of-a-kind combination of insects and microbial cell factories to upcycle food and organic waste into high-value chemicals that are used in many industries such as processed food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

Polyose Bio Fast Facts

How was Polyose Bio Born?

Amin (CEO) is a first-gen synthetic biologist with expertise in fermentation and chemical processes. Passionate about climate change, he explored applying synthetic biology to tackle it during his postdoc at MIT. He chose to advance biomanufacturing industry due to the need for engineered microbes to improve cost and sustainability. A simple question sparked his idea for Polyose Bio: why not use food and organic waste as raw materials instead of natural resources and agricultural products? He designed the process to be sustainable and scalable, aiming for it to become the global gold standard for food waste processing.

Headquarters

Newton, Massachusetts

Technology

Polyose Bio is developing a platform to convert food waste into valuable chemicals. Their innovation involves using engineered microbes and insects to efficiently process the waste. The insects consume the waste and produce a carbon and nitrogen-rich material. This material is then used to create a growth medium for the microbes, which convert it into desired chemicals through precision fermentation. The use of insects allows for easy handling and homogenization of the waste, while requiring minimal water and energy input. This efficient pre-processing step makes the fermentation process scalable for different types of food waste.

Business Model

Polyose Bio’s business model is B2B.

• For their input waste, they would initially source it from point source producers (e.g., agricultural processing facilities, food service establishments), and later expand to post-consumer food waste from municipal compost programs.

• For their initial beachhead market, they will produce purified hyaluronic acid (HA) and sell it to cosmetic ingredient distributors or manufacturers, which serves as a middleman between suppliers and larger cosmetics brands.

Traction

• They’ve participated in several prestigious startup programs:

  • NSF Regional I-Corps program

  • The Engine’s Blueprint program, the

  • Nucleate Activator program (Eco Track)

  • Harvard Innovation Lab’s Climate Circle

• Participated in numerous pitch competitions and grant prize applications and have gained strong traction.

• They were a finalist for

  • MIT Water, Food, & Ag Innovation Prize, Harvard New Venture Competition

  • HBS Tough Tech Prize

  • Carnegie Mellon Tepper Clean Tech Competition

  • 2048 Biotech Pitch Competition

  • MassCEC Catalyst grant prize.

• A semifinalist for MIT Climate and Energy Prize and UC Davis Big Bang Competition

Founders

Amin Espah Borujeni - Founder & CEO

• Former postdoc at MIT Synthetic Biology Cente

• 15+ years of experience in chemical engineering, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, biophysical modeling, and software development

• PhD work led to the development of a suite of automated design software (RBS Calculator, Riboswitch Calculator) that have been licensed by 15+ companies and 300+ universities globally and have transformed synthetic biology by greatly simplifying gene expression optimization inside cells.

Why Now?

Polyose Bio addresses two major issues: food waste and outdated recycling technologies. Approximately 40% of food produced globally is wasted, causing significant harm to economies, ecosystems, and the climate. In the U.S. alone, over 100 million tons of food is wasted annually, with 30 million tons ending up in landfills. This inefficiency costs the American economy $400B and contributes 5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Their innovative process offers a solution by transforming food waste into valuable chemicals, effectively reducing landfill waste and promoting sustainability.

Polyose Bio is addressing two major issues in the chemical biomanufacturing industry. Currently, 10% of global agricultural production is used as raw material for biomanufacturing, which could instead be used to feed the 800 million hungry people worldwide. By replacing agricultural products with food waste as input, more croplands can be freed up for food production.

Market Opportunity

Polyose Bio plans to produce sugar polymers, which have a $100B global market. They are used in various industries such as food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, and water purification.

Market research shows that the cosmetics industry is the most attractive market due to its size, quality standards, sustainability commitment, and low-price sensitivity. Specifically, they will focus on producing hyaluronic acid (HA), which is widely used in high-end skincare products. The HA market has $15B in annual revenue and high unit prices. Their goal is to capture 10% of this market, generating $1B in sales with 60% gross margins and reducing 2 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Polyose Bio can also sell carbon offsets to corporations. Learning from HA production will help us expand to other sugar polymers and access the entire $100B global market.

Climate Impact

Polyose Bio’s process eliminates the need for glucose in fermentation, reducing CO2 emissions by 30-fold. This means their process can save almost half a gigaton of CO2 emissions annually in global fermentation-based biomanufacturing.

Support Polyose Bio

Polyose Bio is interested in making connections with non-profit organizations as well as international or government agencies focusing on sustainability and circular economy.

• Customers - anyone the cosmetics industry, specifically those who use hyaluronic acid (HA) as an ingredient in their product formulations

• Advisors - expertise in fermentation, food waste management, cosmetics industry, and FDA regulation

• Investors - Polyose Bio is currently fundraising with a round of $1.5M at a $10M valuation cap

Recent Climate Rounds

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• Refibered raised a $3.4M Seed round to repurpose used textiles into new threads.

• Kite Mobility raised a $3.4M Seed round to grow its electric mobility platform for multi-family buildings

• Cirkla raised a $3M Pre-Seed round to offer sustainable packaging solutions to businesses

• Opna raised a $6.5M Seed round to connect companies to high quality carbon credit projects

• EF Polymer was awarded $3.54M to develop water absorbent from residues for farmers

Cool Tools

• #OpenDoorClimate - Find climate professionals that are willing to chat

• Net Zero Insights - Market Intelligence on Climate Tech Startups

• Moonarch - Meet investors for your startup for free

• Remote Climate Jobs - Get remote jobs specific to your expertise delivered to your inbox every Wednesday

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