Sofinnova leads £2.4m round for CelluComp

Ellie Pullen
29 November 2013

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Sofinnova Partners has led a ТЃ2.4m funding round for CelluComp, a Scottish sustainable materials company, with participation from the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB).

Sofinnova backed the company via its Green Seed Fund, which held its first close in December 2012 on €22.5m. The fund exclusively focuses its investments on early-stage European companies operating in the renewable chemistry and industrial biotech industries.

Alongside Sofinnova and SIB, a syndicate of angel investors as well as Claridge, the Montreal-based family office of the Stephen Bronfman family, took part in the round.

The capital will be used to scale up CelluComp's production in preparation for global commercialisation.

Company
Founded in 2004, CelluComp is headquartered in Burntisland, Fife. The company has produced an alternative solution to thickening and reinforcement agents used in paints, coatings, concrete, cosmetics and oil drilling fluids.

CelluComp's product, Curran, is produced by the use of a proprietary technology that extracts nano-cellulose fibres from the waste streams of root vegetables, most commonly carrots and sugar beets.

In its primary state Curran is a thick paste, but can be diluted to a pumpable slurry. The product can also be provided in the form of powder, thin sheets and shredded sheets.

People
Christian Kemp-Griffin is the CEO of CelluComp, while its heads of technology Eric Whale and David Hepworth are the founders of the company. Joško Bobanović is a partner at Sofinnova and is responsible for investments made by the firm's Green Seed Fund. Kerry Sharp is head of SIB.