Closed Loop Fund is a social impact investment fund that provides cities and companies access to the capital required to increase recycling rates in communities and build circular supply chains. It brings together the world’s largest retailers and consumer goods companies.

Closed Loop Fund

For Good Ventures is an investment firm that supports innovative, disruptive technologies changing the world for good. The firm invests in for-profit, positive-impact businesses, and funds in private markets positioned for scalable, positive change. It specifically invests in companies that fundamentally benefit humanity or the environment as a core focus of their business model.

For Good Ventures

Early stage investors supporting transformational leaders and organizations who focus on propelling the world forward.

NaHCO3

New York Ventures is dedicated to encouraging innovation and fueling economic growth in communities across the State. This venture capital investment arm of Empire State Development is one of New York State's business resources and innovation investments, including the Governor's START-UP NY program, Innovation Hot Spots, the Regional Economic Development Councils, the Centers of Advanced Technology and Centers of Excellence networks, and the SUNY 2020 Initiative.

New York Ventures

CityRock Venture Partners is a venture capital firm investing in start-ups that focuses on impact with diverse founding teams. It targets companies with which their team can work proactively to help them reach their full potential. It helps to lead the movement of active engagement with its portfolio companies, which they believe results in stronger companies and lasting impact.

CityRock Venture Partners

Geekdom Fund is a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage tech startups. Its partners are in the trenches with their companies. From weekly calls to biannual deep dives, Geekdom Fund looks for ways to help out its portfolio companies whether it is pitch meetings, talent referrals, or grant writings. The firm was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Geekdom Fund

L Catterton provides capital to companies to support acquisitions, management buyouts, recapitalizations, and turnarounds, as well as investment capital to support a company's continued growth and development. They consider investments across a number of targeted industry verticals within the consumer industry: food and beverage, retail and restaurants, consumer products and services, and media and marketing services. L Catterton was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

L Catterton

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

5 Pillars Capital

Ehukai Investments is a venture capital firm.

Ehukai Investments

Tech Square Ventures is an Atlanta-based early-stage venture capital firm investing in enterprise, marketplace, platform, and tech-enabled service companies. We are a team of founders, operators, and investors that partner with visionary entrepreneurs to help them with what they need most – access to markets and customers. Our platform is built on a strategic network of innovation ecosystem and corporate, and university relationships that help founders inform and accelerate go-to-market strategies.

Tech Square Ventures

LOLIWARE

LOLIWARE’s mission is to advance the planet towards a plastic-free, decarbonized future with products that are Designed to Disappear.  We’re an award-winning materials tech company and we are replacing single-use plastics with bio-renewable seaweed-derived alternatives.  The team bringing this vision to life is a diverse and global group of planetary visionaries, scientists, engineers, business leaders, strategists, and technologists with a shared vision for a plastic-free future.  And additionally, we’ve formed a very high caliber scientific advisory board with Dr. Carlos Duarte, a world-renowned marine scientist guiding our seaweed supply chain, Dr. Louis Metzger formerly chief scientific officer at Tierra Biosciences, and Dr. Garret Miyake, an award-winning chemist, Sloan research fellow, and co-founder of Cypris materials.   There’s an increasing number of biobased alternatives on the market, but not all products are created equal.  There are concerns about their true environmental impact as compared to plastic.  Biodegradability is one critical factor to consider, but we must also look at the carbon footprint.  Some current options such as paper straws carry a carbon footprint of 2-3X more than plastic itself while others have made false claims around their biodegradability.  A better future necessitates an alternative that is proven to be compostable, carbon negative, and scalable.  LOLIWARE was just awarded top product of the year from Environmental + Energy leader because they believe we have the ability to set a new industry standard for single-use plastics  Our first product is a home compostable, ocean safe, tree-free, drinking straw.  But it’s important to note that LOLIWARE is not a straw company, we are a biopolymer company with applications in every category of single-use plastics.  LOLIWARE is focused on 6 new products by the close of 2023.

<div>Loliware produces edible kelp-based cups and cutlery using its proprietary patented “SEA technology”. SEA technology combines a proprietary blend of ocean-farmed seaweed, minerals, and natural colors to create bio-based pellets, which can be used to produce biodegradable products such as straws.  All of Loliware’s products are claimed to be hyper-compostable. As announced in January 2020, the company is expected to have launched small packs of straws for consumer purchase in early 2020 and had plans to launch more products such as cocktail straws, u-shaped straws and utensils in 2020. Loliware plans to add cups, lids, packaging, and kitchen utensils to its portfolio. </div>

Earth-friendly biotech solutions for the textile, packaging and construction industries.

Bio-based Materials

Loliware

<div>
 
 Loliware produces edible kelp-based cups and cutlery using its proprietary patented “SEA technology”. SEA technology combines a proprietary blend of ocean-farmed seaweed, minerals, and natural colors to create bio-based pellets, which can be used to produce biodegradable products such as straws.  All of Loliware’s products are claimed to be hyper-compostable. As announced in January 2020, the company is expected to have launched small packs of straws for consumer purchase in early 2020 and had plans to launch more products such as cocktail straws, u-shaped straws and utensils in 2020. Loliware plans to add cups, lids, packaging, and kitchen utensils to its portfolio. 
 
 
 In October 2020, the company launched the LOLIWARE Straw, as an alternative to the 500 million plastic straws used daily in the US. In April 2018, French alcoholic beverage producer Pernod Ricard partnered with Loliware as part of its strategy to stop the use of single use plastic straws. Loliware has also partnered with Marriott to supply straws.
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9905">
 In April 2022,
 </a>
 Loliware introduced a seaweed-based pellet made using its proprietary “SEA technology”. which can be used to produce the company’s Blue Carbon straws at scale.  As of December 2019, Loliware has a capacity of producing two million Blue Carbon straws per week at its pilot plant based in New York. This is set to increase to an annual capacity of 30 billion straws in 2020, following the use of Loliware’s new production plant in Europe. To support further manufacturing, Loliware partnered with packaging manufacturer Sinclair and Rush to produce Blue Carbon straws at a large scale. 
 
 
 Loliware raised USD 6 million in a seed funding round in January 2019, led by venture studio Hatzimemos/Libby. The company aimed to use these funds to scale up and for further research and development. 
 
 
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Bolt Threads manufactures vegan &ldquo;spider&rdquo; silk and mycelium-based materials. Bolt Threads develops isolated silk proteins from proteins inspired by spider silk through a yeast fermentation process. The company&rsquo;s Microsilk products are sold under its clothing brand, Best Made Co. The company has also developed another biomaterial using mushroom-based mycelium, an alternative leather product branded as Mylo, which is produced on a larger scale.&nbsp;
 &nbsp;The company has also developed another biomaterial using mushroom-based mycelium, an alternative leather product branded as Mylo, which was expected to be produced on a larger scale.&nbsp;
 
 
 In September 2021, Bolt Threads announced its plans to produce Mylo on a commercial scale by the end of 2022 and expected to collaborate with mushroom farmers to heighten its mycelium crops. However, the company could not keep up with its plans and, as a result,
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19867">
 halting production of Mylo
 </a>
 in June 2023 due to inflationary pressure and lack of funding.&nbsp;
 
 
 For its Microsilk product, Bolt had a production capacity of 32,000 sq ft per annum as of 2018. Since Microsilk remains significantly more expensive than traditional silk, the founders were seeking ways to scale up. 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 For its Microsilk product, Bolt Threads launched its first collaboration in 2017 with fashion designer Stella McCartney and introduced its second prototype in the form of a biodegradable tennis dress.
 &nbsp;
 
 
 The leather alternative Mylo has been used in collaborations with Stella McCartney, Seattle-based leather bag manufacturer Chester Wallace, and Canadian athletic apparel retailer Lululemon. In October 2020, The Mylo Consortium was also formed including Adidas, Stella McCartney, Kering, and Lululemon, who collectively have made a seven-figure investment into Bolt Threads to produce Mylo. In return for their investments, these brands would have access to a large supply of the product.&nbsp;
 
 
 Stella McCartney has been experimenting with Mylo to create clothing prototypes with plans to use the material in upcoming collections. Adidas used Mylo to produce high-performance footwear for the first time in April 2021 by making a vegan version of its &ldquo;Stan Smith&rdquo; sneaker design that dates back to 1965 and had plans to expand the use of Mylo material in its other products including handbags, wallets, shoes, jackets. In February 2022, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8404">
 Lululemon
 </a>
 launched a Mylo-based yoga bag collection, which included a multipurpose yoga bag and a storage bag for workout gear. Mylo was also used by Danish luxury brand Ganni for the launch of its limited edition Mylo-based wallet range and one-of-a-kind saddle-bags in June 2022. Ganni&rsquo;s partnership with Bolt Threads included plans to release more Mylo-based products in Q1 2023. With growing demand for its Mylo product, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8884">
 in February 2022, 
 </a>
 the company partnered with Mycelium Materials Europe (MME) for the commercial production of Mylo.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s last funding round was a USD 123 million Series D in January 2018 led by Baillie Gifford. The funds were used to commercialize the company&rsquo;s Microsilk products.
 
 
 
</div>

Bolt Threads

<div>
 
 MycoWorks is a manufacturer of alternative leather using mushroom-based fungi. Its proprietary brand, Reishi, is manufactured using a patented process called &ldquo;Fine Mycelium&rdquo;, which uses fungi&rsquo;s capacity to bind to itself and carbon-based materials in producing durable three-dimensional material. The benefits of Reishi, according to MycoWorks, include its tensile strength (the force needed to pull material to its breaking point) at 10 Megapascals (MPa), compared to the average cowhide tensile strength of 8.5 MPa. Reishi is also customizable (in terms of sizing and specifications) allowing growing direct-to-design products that eliminate waste from cutting and trimming.
 
 
 The company has commercialized Reishi following testing in clothing, shoe, wallet, and handbag design applications. The company indicated in November 2020 that the first luxury fashion and footwear products containing Reishi will be launched in partnership with leading fashion and footwear brands in the coming months. MycoWorks also partnered with Herm&egrave;s, the French luxury goods manufacturer, in March 2021 to use a material named &ldquo;Sylvania&rdquo;(a Fine Mycelium-based material developed by the two companies over three years) in a sustainable version of Herm&egrave;s&rsquo;s &ldquo;Victoria&rdquo; travel bag, by the end of 2021. MycoWorks announced the first fashion products made from Reshi by luxury hatmaker Nick Fouquet 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11778">
 in July 2022
 </a>
 , where he launched a limited-time hat collection called the &ldquo;Reshi&rdquo; Collection&rdquo;.&nbsp;
 
 
 Mycoworks operates three Reishi plants as of January 2022. The third plant in California has an annual production capacity of 80,000 sq ft of material per year, increased the company&rsquo;s production tenfold, and reportedly reached a milestone of producing 10,000 trays of Fine Mycelium after a year of operation. The company is also building a new USD 107 million worth manufacturing facility in Union, South Carolina, with operations expected to commence in 2023. The new facility reportedly is expected to produce several million sq ft of Fine Mycelium per year. 
 In August 2023, the company announced opening a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20757">
 136,000 square foot plant 
 </a>
 &nbsp;which will produce Reishi that has been embraced by luxury brands like Herm&egrave;s and Ligne Roset for various applications and was expected to begin operation on September 20, 2023.&nbsp; 
 
 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7804">
 In January 2022
 </a>
 , MycoWorks raised USD 125 million in a Series C funding round led by Prime Movers Lab. The funding was expected to accelerate commercial production of Reishi and support in R&amp;D, technology development, and hiring new employees. The company also received a strategic investment (amount undisclosed) from GM Ventures in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13861">
 October 2022
 </a>
 as part of a strategic partnership where they will jointly develop mycelium leather materials for end-use applications in automotive design.
 
</div>

MycoWorks

<div>
 
 Checkerspot is a manufacturer of microalgae-based performance materials which are used to produce consumer products, including skis and surfboards. The company modifies microalgae&rsquo;s genes to derive new molecular building blocks and then bioengineers production of consumer products. Microbes are optimized to biomanufacture unique, natural structural oils that were previously not accessible on a viable, commercial scale. The company&rsquo;s primary focus is on high-performance polyurethanes and coatings made from bio-based oil via fabrication.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s commercialized products include Algal Core (a light-weight urethane-based composite) and Algal Wall (cast urethane), both products are offered under the WNDR Alpine brand while algal oil is sold under the miDori bioWick. In February 2021, WNDR Alpine, Checkerspot&rsquo;s outdoor brand, received the B Corp Certification, private certification granted to for-profit companies by the B Lab, a global non-profit organization formed to support the movement of using businesses as a force for good.&nbsp; The company has partnered with Beyond Surface Technologies (BST) to commercialize miDori BioWick, an algal oil used in BST&rsquo;s wicking textile finish. As of August 2020, the company&rsquo;s co-development partners also included W.L. Gore and DIC Corporation.
 
 
 In its latest funding round in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16362">
 February 2023,
 </a>
 Checkerspot raised USD 55 million in Series C funding led by ArrowMark Partners to accelerate the development and commercialization of biobased alternatives for everyday products and expand into markets, such as industrial applications, personal care, and food and nutrition.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
</div>

Checkerspot

<div>
 
 Based in California, Mi Terro uses a proprietary process that extracts proteins, fibers, and starch from milk and agricultural waste to produce sustainable yarn and bio-based plastics, respectively. The milk-based yarn is made using a self-developed technology known as Pro-Act that extracts casein protein molecules from milk, which is then purified and undergoes a dynamic flow shear spinning process to convert the casein to sustainable fiber. The resulting yarn is claimed to be three times softer than cotton and has applications in textiles, food packaging, bedding, personal care, and medical sectors. Mi Terro has also developed a limited-release ocean-waste duffle bag. 
 
 
 The company sold its bio-based yarn textile to customers in Japan following a B2C business model. The company reports that USD 100,000 worth of these materials were sold by 2020. At this time, Mi Terro shifted its focus from producing milk-based yarn products to producing bio-based plastic material using agricultural waste. The bio-based plastic is also made using the same two-step process that involves extracting proteins, fibers, and starch from the waste and modifying them to create a polymer to produce straws, containers, boxes, and flexible films. The company states that its plastic material is similar to polyvinyl alcohol and claims that it can decompose in 180 days at industrial composting facilities.
 
 
 As of May 2021, the company has partnered with Nike, Danone, Toyoshima, DFA, Mitsubishi, Lair East Labs, Dole, Budweiser, and Harada.
 
 
 In January 2021, the company also won the Meda Million Dollar Challenge and received a USD 300,000 prize. 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8930">
 In March 2022
 </a>
 , the company raised USD 1.5 million in seed funding led by Astanor. The funds would support Mi Terro in scaling up production at its planned facility in China. 
 
</div>

Mi Terro

<div>
 
 Modern Meadow develops collagen-based materials from plant proteins, using a range of biofabrication processes including the creation of bio alloys, solution dyeing, protein design, and fermentation. The focus of the company is on the luxury branded market with its fully biodegradable proprietary brand, &ldquo;ZOA&rdquo;. Modern Meadow also reports that it is developing &ldquo;Bioleather1 (BL1)&rdquo;, an alternative to chrome tanned bovine leather made using its proprietary BioAlloy process. According to research published by the company in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8431">
 February 2022
 </a>
 , BL1 reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80% and 20% compared to traditional and synthetic leather respectively. It also reduces water consumption from groundwater sources, land use, and the subsequent degradation of water bodies during the process by 95% compared to conventional leather production.
 
 
 In April 2020, Modern Meadow announced plans to commence commercial production later that year and was actively looking for manufacturing partners. As of the same date, Modern Meadow employed between 70-90 staff at its 72,000 sq ft factory in New Jersey.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Modern Meadow announced a partnership with Evonik in March 2018, to develop and scale-up the commercial production of fermentation-based products.
 
 
 In April 2021, the company reported that it would announce collaborations with fashion brands and industry partners during the following six to nine months. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15657">
 January 2023
 </a>
 , Modern Meadow partnered with Taiwan-based sustainable fabric company, Singtex to develop biomaterials for various applications, beginning with a sustainable, waterproof, membrane-based material for the outdoor apparel market. In 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16786">
 February 2023
 </a>
 , the company partnered with US luxury brand, Tory Burch, to launch Tory Burch&rsquo;s first plant-based leather alternative tote, the Ella Bio, powered by Modern Meadow technology, Bio-Alloy.
 
 
 In June 2023, it also formed a strategic partnership with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19178">
 Navis TubeTex
 </a>
 , a provider of textile machinery, to develop a sustainable textile manufacturing process. During the same month, it also formed a strategic partnership with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19868">
 BASF
 </a>
 to create an animal-free material called Bio-VERA that replicates the look, feel, and aging properties of traditional leather, suede, or chamois.
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In April 2021, the company raised USD 130 million in a Series C funding round led by Key Partners Capital to (i) develop the company's biofabrication technology, used in creating an alternative to fossil-fuel-based textile coatings; and (ii) scale-up and commercialize its collagen-based leather material.
 
 
 
 
 
</div>

Modern Meadow

Sustainable alternatives to materials like animal leather, silk, plastic

Reuses waste to create bio-based materials

Developers of alternatives to plastic and other materials used in packaging

Loliware

Recent Updates

Loliware expands to Europe with Montachem International

Loliware raises USD 15.4 million in Pre-Series A funding

Company Brief

Funding

Investors

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless