Puraffinity, a start-up creating applied sciences which take away PFAS from water, has introduced plans to scale, following the appointment of Vincent Caillaud as its new CEO and securing £6.73 million in new funding from BGF.
Mr Caillaud brings distinctive trade expertise, with greater than 20 years working within the water sector. He was beforehand CEO of Veolia Water Applied sciences & Options, a world water expertise enterprise unit inside the world’s largest water, power and waste administration firm, Veolia.
BGF’s funding completes Puraffinity’s £16.93 million Collection A funding spherical, following current funding from Octopus Ventures, HG Ventures, Kindred Capital, and Verve Ventures, in addition to supplies science sector specialist fund Common Supplies Incubator Co (UMI).
The funding is meant to permit Puraffinity to scale up manufacturing of its patented, PFAS-capturing materials, “Puratech ®”, “to meet exceptionally strong and growing demand across multiple sectors”. It can additionally help the corporate’s work creating contemporary business functions that use Puraffinity’s patented supplies.
Based in 2015 by Henrik Hagemann & Gabi Santosa and spun out of Imperial School London, Puraffinity gives a differentiated resolution to the world’s ever-growing PFAS drawback as its expertise persistently and reliably removes PFAS from water, in a way more cost-effective method in contrast with typical remedies.
Puraffinity stated its precision applied sciences place it on the forefront of the combat in opposition to PFAS, which have been linked to a number of well being points, together with most cancers. Developed within the Forties, PFAS’ molecular make-up makes them immune to water, grease and oil, which means they’ve a number of industrial makes use of. Nonetheless, these identical qualities make them laborious to destroy, therefore the title “forever chemicals”, and in response to the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Well being Sciences, they’ve entered water provides worldwide, with an estimated 97 % of individuals having PFAS of their our bodies.
Worldwide regulators are analyzing bans or limits on the quantity of PFAS consuming water can comprise in an try to deal with the estimated €16 trillion annual value of environmental remediation and healthcare prices.
Puratech, described as a breakthrough adsorbent media that Puraffinity has developed, could be utilized throughout use circumstances because it encompasses a customisable plug-in resolution that matches into any current water therapy system. Puratech can be tailor-made to seize particular PFAS compounds, guaranteeing that international customers can meet the regulatory requirements of various markets.
The high-performing materials additionally adopts a inexperienced chemistry expertise which, in response to Systemiq 2022, leads to 60 % much less carbon emissions in its manufacturing than current petroleum-based merchandise.
“Attracting such a respected water industry figure as Vincent, alongside investment from BGF underlines not only the progress Puraffinity has already made, but the incredible potential of the business, said Henrik Hagemann, founder and chief product & innovation officer at Puraffinity, “The new management structure will allow me to focus on accelerating our existing technologies and developing new product roadmaps, confident that Puraffinity’s business development is assured with Vincent as CEO.”
Vincent Caillaud, CEO of Puraffinity, stated: “At Puraffinity, we are delighted to join BGF’s growing network of climate tech start-ups as the company continues on its mission of providing PFAS-safe water to the world. With BGF’s expertise in helping start-ups in breakthrough technologies achieve transformational growth, we look forward to meaningfully expanding our commercial capability and extending the global reach of our patented PFAS-removal solutions.”
“Puraffinity is well-positioned to fulfil its vision of bringing PFAS-safe water to one billion people by 2030,” stated Luke Rajah, investor at BGF. “BGF is thrilled to work with Puraffinity as it enters a new phase of rapid, global growth, taking a meaningful step towards enhancing water safety. BGF has developed a strong reputation for identifying and providing early-stage support for companies creating technologies which not only have huge potential but offer huge societal benefits.”
