Bengaluru-based specialty chemicals startup altM has raised $10.3 million in a Series A funding round to expand its manufacturing capabilities and scale the production of industrial chemicals derived from agricultural residues.
The funding round saw new investors Rainmatter by Zerodha and Mela Ventures join existing backers Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact. VC Grid and strategic angel investors also participated.
The company plans to deploy the capital towards manufacturing expansion, research and development (R&D), customer qualification programmes, and strengthening its engineering and commercial teams as it moves from pilot-scale production towards commercial manufacturing.
Abhinav Negi, Lead – Climate & Deep Tech at Rainmatter by Zerodha, said the investment reflects the potential to replace fossil-derived industrial inputs with materials produced from agricultural residues.
“Re-wiring foundational supply chains away from fossil-derived inputs is one of the most critical challenges facing modern manufacturing today. India possesses an immense domestic agricultural residue base, and by transforming this surplus into high-performance biochemicals, Apoorv and Yugal are unlocking strategic industrial value,” Negi said.
Converting agricultural residues into industrial chemicals
Founded in 2022 by former Tesla manufacturing leaders Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, altM is developing a specialty chemicals platform that converts lignocellulosic biomass into high-performance industrial materials. Bioprocessing scientist Dr Harshad Velankar later joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer.
Its feedstocks include sugarcane bagasse, rice straw and other agricultural residues. The platform processes the major components of biomass – cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin – to produce multiple materials from a single feedstock.
The resulting products are intended for applications across beauty and personal care, textiles, industrial chemicals, construction, packaging and consumer goods. The approach aims to establish agricultural residues as an alternative source of industrial carbon and reduce dependence on fossil-derived raw materials.
“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.
“Our focus is on developing materials and manufacturing processes that allow customers to adopt these materials at the performance, cost, quality, and scale required for industrial applications,” he added.
Bengaluru facility advances products towards commercialisation
Following its $3.5 million seed funding round in 2023, altM established an integrated R&D and pilot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. The facility brings laboratory research, demonstration manufacturing and pilot production together at a single location.
According to the company, it has expanded its laboratory footprint nearly fivefold in less than two years, commissioned its demonstration manufacturing facility and advanced six molecules to demonstration scale. Three of these have been selected for pilot plant production.
The first products moving towards commercialisation include a lignin-derived SPF Booster for suncare applications, a cellulose-based rheology modifier and bio-derived ferulic acid for cosmetics and personal care formulations.
Yugal Raj Jain, Co-founder and COO of altM, said scaling materials from laboratory research to commercial manufacturing requires consistent production processes.
“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,” Jain said. He added that the company had combined materials development with process engineering and manufacturing from the outset.
Mela Ventures Managing Partner Krishnakumar N also highlighted the challenge of developing materials that can match the performance of fossil-derived inputs while changing the source of their carbon. Omnivore Partner Abhilash Sethi said the company’s progress from research towards manufacturing had reinforced the investor’s confidence in its commercial potential.
Bioenergy Business Analysis
altM’s funding highlights an emerging application for agricultural biomass beyond conventional bioenergy and biofuel production: the manufacture of specialty chemicals and materials that can substitute for fossil-derived industrial inputs.
The company’s approach centres on using multiple components of lignocellulosic feedstocks, including cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, to develop different products from the same agricultural residue. If successfully scaled, this could create additional industrial uses for crop residues such as rice straw and sugarcane bagasse.
