New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Speciality chemicals firm altM has raised USD 10.3 million from investors to expand manufacturing capacity

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Speciality chemicals firm altM has raised USD 10.3 million from investors to expand manufacturing capacity

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Speciality chemicals firm altM has raised USD 10.3 million from investors to expand manufacturing capacity

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) Speciality chemicals firm altM has raised USD 10.3 million from investors to expand manufacturing capacity and research operations.

    In a statement on Thursday, Bengaluru-based firm altM said it has closed a USD 10.3 million Series A funding round from Rainmatter by Zerodha and Mela Ventures. Existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact have also participated alongside strategic angel investors.

    The company will use the fund mainly to expand manufacturing capabilities, research and development and customer qualification programs, besides strengthening the engineering and commercial teams.

    altM is developing a speciality chemicals platform that converts agricultural residue into high-performance industrial chemicals.

    The company was founded in 2022 by former Tesla manufacturing leaders Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, with bioprocessing scientist Harshad Velankar later joining as Chief Scientific Officer.

    altM's processes convert lignocellulosic biomass, including sugarcane bagasse, rice straw and other agricultural residues, into materials for beauty and personal care, textiles, industrial chemicals, construction, packaging, and consumer goods.

    "Industrial manufacturing has relied on fossil carbon for more than a century. We are building a new source of industrial carbon from agricultural residue," said Apoorv Garg, Co-founder and CEO of altM.

    altM has built an integrated R&D and pilot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.

    "Moving a material from the laboratory to commercial production requires more than proving that it works. It requires processes that can consistently produce the same material at increasing scale," said Yugal Raj Jain, Co-founder and COO of altM.

    The company had raised USD 3.5 million in a seed round in 2023.

    Abhilash Sethi, Partner at Omnivore, said, "We have believed in altM from early on, and what makes us double down on our confidence is the team's ability to turn ambitious science into something real and commercially scalable.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)