Bengaluru-based specialty chemicals company altM raised $10.3 million in a Series A funding round. The firm uses agricultural residue to create industrial chemicals. "We are building a new source of industrial carbon from agricultural residue," said CEO Apoorv Garg. The company will use these funds to expand its manufacturing capabilities.
Bengaluru-based specialty chemicals company altM has raised $10.3 million in a Series A funding round, with Rainmatter by Zerodha and Mela Ventures joining existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact, along with strategic angel investors.
The funding will be used to expand altM's manufacturing capabilities, research and development, and customer qualification programmes.
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 is developing a specialty chemicals platform that converts agricultural residue into high-performance industrial chemicals.
"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," said Abhinav Negi, lead - Climate & Deep Tech, Rainmatter by Zerodha.
altM's processes convert lignocellulosic biomass, including sugarcane bagasse, rice straw and other agricultural residues, into materials used in beauty and personal care, textiles, industrial chemicals, construction, packaging and consumer goods.
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The platform uses the major fractions of biomass -- cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin -- to produce multiple products from a single feedstock.
"altM is tackling one of the hardest problems in industrial chemistry, which is creating new-age materials that can match the performance of fossil-derived inputs," said Krishnakumar N, managing partner, Mela Ventures.
Apoorv Garg, co-founder and chief executive officer of altM, said industrial manufacturing had relied on fossil carbon for more than a century.
"We are building a new source of industrial carbon from agricultural residue," Garg said.
"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.
Since raising its $3.5 million seed round in 2023, altM has built an integrated R&D and pilot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, bringing laboratory research, demonstration manufacturing and pilot production under one roof.
In less than two years, the company has expanded its laboratory footprint nearly fivefold.
It has commissioned its demonstration manufacturing facility and advanced six molecules to demonstration scale, with three selected for pilot plant production.
The first products advancing 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.