SEAWEED-based biodegradable membrane specialist Plantsea has smashed its £50,000 crowdfunding target, raising £350,000 to help advance production from lab-scale innovation to industrial manufacturing trials.
Made from seaweed, Plantsea’s natural polymer film will dissolve in water or biodegrade in compost. Designed to equal the cost of PVOH in laundry and cleaning capsules, it can be heat-sealed or vacuum-formed, and manufactured in conventional processes with no adaptations.
CEO Dr Rhiannon Rees said, “This is an incredible vote of confidence in our product. The capsule market is the fastest growing in the laundry sector and, while PVOH is often marketed as biodegradable, it still contributes to microplastic pollution. If adopted at scale, Plantsea technology has the potential to remove billions of plastic-based capsules from the supply chain.”
Plantsea aims to replace petroleum-derived plastics with ‘scalable, marine-safe’ alternatives. Its film is designed for detergent-grade performance and is said to equal PVOH production on cost.
The company, based in Wales, is already running paid pilots with global brands. Its longer-term aim is to build a biorefining plant. The crowdfunding – which brings the Seed Round total of over £1.85 million from grants and investors – will allow Plantsea to scale biopolymer production by 100 times and run demonstration-scale manufacturing trials across the UK, Europe, and Asia.
Crowdfunding through the Republic platform attracted support from over 500 individuals. In total, Plantsea has received over £1.85 million in investment from Angels Invest Wales, Sustainable Ventures and Syndicate Room and Innovate UK.
Rees added, “Film manufacturers and brands have been actively searching for a viable PVOH replacement for years. For Plantsea, this round of funding is the key to turning years of deep scientific work into real-world impact. We’ve proven the material works. Now we’re proving it can scale and preparing to bring our polymer for seaweed-based soluble films to market.”
