ETH Zurich Spin-off Gaia Tech offers a new approach to upcycle agricultural sidestreams into bio-compounds and added-value ingredients. With the closing of its pre-seed round, the company has raised CHF 480’000 to start pilot production and enter the cosmetic ingredients market.
Gaia Tech emerged from an innovative research project at ETH Zurich with the aim of developing technologies that can unlock and market valuable resources found in byproducts from the agro-food sector, primarily olive sidestreams. Agricultural waste contains many resources that could replace synthetic compounds used in the cosmetic and food industries; however, this waste mostly gets discarded without being valorized. With its proprietary extraction technology, Gaia offers a modular and scalable solution to enable the industry to replace harmful chemicals with renewable biocompounds.
Gaia Tech has achieved promising market validation. According to the head of biological evaluation at an ingredients provider, Gaia Tech has “the best antioxidant technology we tested so far”. Furthermore, the startup has received significant recognition for its groundbreaking work, environmental friendliness and efficiency; most recently, it won the De Vigier Award, receiving CHF 100’000 prize money.
Dr Enrico Tenaglia, Co-founder and head of product development, emphasized, “Our technology not only offers a sustainable solution for agricultural waste but also presents a new stream of high-value ingredients for cosmetics, food, pet food, and animal feed manufacturers. We believe this approach creates a win-win situation for the industry and the environment.”
The startup has now closed its first investment round, which saw the participation of SICTIC business angels, Venture Kick, and the STI Foundation. With the capital increase, the startup has changed the legal structure from GmbH to AG and in the next phase, it will focus on establishing pilots with leading industry partners.
Samuel Bühlmann, Co-founder and head of business development, said, “The pre-seed funding will allow us to further validate our solution with customers and get it in great shape to enter the market. We thank everyone that helped us get here and are full of energy to work on the challenges ahead”.
(Press release/RAN)
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