The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Apr 2025

Simplifyber has developed a novel process and a proprietary natural fiber liquid called Fybron™ that can be injected into 3D molds to create a variety of soft goods, bypassing traditional steps like spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing. The company has demonstrated its technology in footwear, unveiling a cellulose-based shoe upper at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024 through a collaboration with GANNI. Founded in 2021 and led by CEO Maria Intscher-Owrang, Simplifyber is pursuing fully bio-based and biodegradable applications. The company intends to use the new funding to scale up production capabilities, expand the team, and develop new applications. Financially, Simplifyber completed a US$4.2M seed round in July 2022 and has now closed a US$12M Series A in April 2025. The Series A supports commercialization and manufacturing scale efforts following pilot customer collaborations. Simplifyber is a NYC-based maker of fully-molded garment and shoe uppers manufactured directly from a cellulose-based liquid. Its core product is soft, cotton-like biodegradable clothing and footwear created by injecting a 100% natural cellulose formula—derived from wood pulp and other plant-based materials with non-toxic additives—into molds, removing the need for spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing. The company says this process is less resource-intensive and aims to reduce the roughly 35% of materials in the fashion supply chain that ends up as waste. Simplifyber is led by co-founder and CEO Maria Intscher-Owrang, who has 20+ years as a fashion designer and director at brands including Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Edun. The company closed a $3.5M seed funding round to support its development; no operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · May 2024

XGS Energy builds a proprietary solid-state, water-independent geothermal system that uses thermally conductive materials to produce round-the-clock baseload power anywhere there is hot rock. Its Thermal Reach Enhancement (TRE) technology completed a shallow field test in 2024, and the company is operating its first commercial-scale well in California, validating predictive performance models and accumulating operating history. XGS positions its modular approach to decouple geothermal from traditional water- and geology-dependent constraints, aiming to unlock geographic flexibility, easier permitting, and faster deployment. The firm says it has a multi-gigawatt commercial project pipeline across the Western United States and is ramping commercial operations ahead of a planned growth equity round later this year. XGS is headquartered in Houston, Texas, and plans to aggressively expand its team through year-end to support deployment and project development. The company’s approach targets improved financeability to attract venture and infrastructure capital for large-scale geothermal projects. XGS Energy has developed a proprietary slurry — a mix of water, surfactants and conductive minerals (patent filings mention graphite‑like materials and silica) — that is injected between a metal casing and surrounding rock to fill cracks and improve heat conduction. The slurry’s surfactant breaks at higher temperatures, releasing minerals that settle into fractures a few feet from the borehole, permitting the company to use a single cased borehole rather than multiple wells. By keeping working fluid isolated inside the metal casing, XGS can avoid contaminated surface water and use lower‑cost, higher‑efficiency heat exchangers, reducing operating costs. CEO Josh Prueher says the technique makes wells more productive and predictable — “we know within 30 days where we’re going to be in 30 years” in terms of power production. XGS’s technology can be applied to both new and existing geothermal wells, and the company plans to develop a version for suitably hot legacy oil and gas wells to avoid plugging and abandonment costs. To help commercialize the technology, XGS recently raised funding to build a commercial‑scale prototype at an existing geothermal field in California. XGS Energy is a geothermal company headquartered in Palo Alto, California that develops a proprietary Thermal Reach Enhancement™ (TRE) system and closed-loop well architecture. Its TRE system uses materials the company says are 50 times more conductive than native rock to deliver high-efficiency thermal energy without dependence on water or specific geology. XGS positions the technology for global deployment and says it enables terawatt-scale geothermal heat and power. The company completed more than 24 months of lab testing and is building a North American prototype to demonstrate TRE at full commercial scale. That prototype is intended to validate predictive performance models and support first commercial projects in the Western United States, Japan, and the Philippines. XGS emphasizes that its closed-loop, water-independent approach allows deployment anywhere in the world, unlike traditional geothermal solutions that require hot water reservoirs and specific geological formations. XGS Energy develops proprietary geothermal heat-harvesting technology and a closed-loop well architecture intended to unlock scalable, affordable, carbon-free baseload power. The technology is designed to eliminate reliance on rare geological formations and water availability, allowing broader deployment of geothermal energy. XGS says its approach enables global deployment and terawatt-scale geothermal heat and power. The company plans to use recent financing to accelerate technology development and commercial progress. XGS announced a $19M financing package, including a $14M Series A led by Anzu Partners, to support development efforts. Headquartered in Palo Alto, the company changed its name from Geothermic Solution LLC to XGS Energy, Inc.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

TômTex is a New York-based sustainable biomaterial producer that makes biodegradable textiles from chitosan, a biopolymer sourced from seafood shells and mushrooms. Its material has been used by designers and brands including Peter Do, Di Petsa, Dauphinette and Maitrepierre at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks. The textile can be custom-moulded, stamped, 3D-printed or embossed in animal leather-style patterns. The company recently achieved a production milestone of 100 linear feet in its initial run and plans to scale to larger-scale production. Founder Uyen Tran said the $2.25M seed will fund team growth, key hires and expanded manufacturing and help secure new contracts and revenue. With this round TômTex has raised $4.15M to date, including a prior $1.9M round. Investors including Happiness Capital, SOSV, Parley for the Oceans, MIH Capital and Earth Venture Capital have expressed support for the company's technology and environmental potential. TômTex produces a biodegradable leather alternative made from chitosan derived from shell seafood and mushroom waste. The material is designed to mimic leather’s look and feel while avoiding petrochemical "vegan leather" and reducing environmental harm. The company is targeting the $400 billion global leather market and is initially focusing on luxury leather goods, developing partnerships with large brands and designers in New York City. TômTex plans to expand beyond luxury goods into apparel and accessories and later into consumer electronics and automotive interior applications as it advances material properties. The startup will use its $1.7M pre-seed funding to bring the product to market and to grow its team beyond the three founders, hiring business development, technical staff, a senior scientist, and marketing/communications. Headquartered in New York City, TômTex emphasizes circularity by using waste-derived feedstocks and water- or ethanol-based processing to avoid harsh chemistries and improve biodegradability.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

OCOchem develops a proprietary electrochemical process that converts carbon dioxide and water into sustainable platform molecules such as formic and formates and clean distributed hydrogen. The company sells platform molecules for use in chemicals, fuels, materials, feed, fibers, and fertilizers to reduce carbon intensity. It intends to scale its modular carbon conversion technology to industrial proportions and build a pilot plant for commercial demonstration operations. OCOchem operates principal R&D laboratories and manufacturing in Richland, WA, which opened in late 2020. Halliburton Labs has supported the company’s scaling since 2021, and INPEX has partnered with OCOchem to evaluate collaboration opportunities leveraging its technology. The company is led by CEO Todd Brix and recently completed a Seed financing to fund its next stage of commercialization.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2023

Algenesis develops bio-based plastics intended to match petroleum-based materials on cost and functionality. Its patented Soleic® technology is a renewable, high-performance, fully biodegradable and backyard-compostable bioPolyurethane made from plants and algae. Soleic® PU is currently used in soft foam applications such as midsoles and insoles for footwear. The company is working to evolve the product to be 100% biobased and received a US$5M grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to scale production of biobased isocyanates from algae oils using a green-flow chemistry process. The new seed funding will be used to expand Soleic® lines into breathable waterproof textiles and injection-molded products like phone cases. Algenesis also plans to bring more processes in-house to strengthen its supply chain and scale production and commercialization.