• Sway

  Led · Seed · Feb 2024

  Sway is a San Leandro, CA–based cleantech startup led by CEO Julia Marsh that develops seaweed-based, home-compostable replacements for plastic packaging. Its core technology is a patent-pending Thermoplastic Seaweed resin (TPSea™), a 100% biobased, home-compostable, microplastic-free ingredient made from a regenerative ocean crop. Sway’s product portfolio built with TPSea™ focuses on flexible packaging applications such as polybags, retail bags, and food wrappers. Flexible packaging applications represent approximately 30% of all single-use plastic packaging, which the company targets. Sway plans to scale its product portfolio and catalyze adoption by fashion, food, and home goods brands, including J.Crew, Burton, and others associated with the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize. The company emphasizes environmental benefits that can replenish ecosystems and support coastal communities. Sway is a materials company developing seaweed-derived, bio-based, nontoxic packaging designed to be rapidly compostable in home and industrial environments. Its initial product focus is on high-performance polybags and retail bags intended to replace thin-film petroleum-derived plastics. The company emphasizes regenerative seaweed supply chains that are carbon-negative and support ocean health and livelihoods. Sway plans to use its recent financing to accelerate product development and run initial pilots with mission-aligned partner brands in 2022. The team includes co-founder and CEO Julia Marsh and was founded in 2020; the company is based in Berkeley, California. Sway frames its work as both material innovation and cultural change toward a plastic-free future.

• Keel Labs

  Participated · Series A · Jun 2022

  AlgiKnit develops materials and yarns sourced from seaweeds such as Macrocystis pyrifera to replace petroleum-based and chemically intensive fibers. The company was founded in 2017 by Aleks Gosiewski, Aaron Nesser and Tessa Callaghan after the founders identified the environmental harm of conventional textile materials. AlgiKnit emphasizes the sustainability attributes of giant kelp — no fertilizers or fresh water required, no arable land use, and efficient ocean CO2 sequestration. The business is primarily B2B, supplying designers and brands with fibers and yarns for apparel, interiors, furnishings and automotive uses. In June the company opened a 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina; the team is about 20 people and the company is hiring for roughly 10 roles at its North Carolina headquarters. With recent funding, AlgiKnit plans to scale production capabilities and increase investment in manufacturing and R&D to bring its materials to market more broadly. AlgiKnit extracts alginate from seaweed and combines it with renewable biopolymers to produce a strong, elastic, biodegradable yarn that can be knitted into textiles and used in 3D printing. The yarn is colored with natural pigments, requires far less water than conventional dyeing, and avoids toxic dye chemicals, contributing to a low carbon footprint. The company emphasizes a circular production cycle in which end-of-life materials become food for microorganisms in the sea and on land. Algae feedstock grows very quickly and is already cultivated and sold by coastal communities, supporting both sustainability and local incomes. AlgiKnit has developed prototypes for a T-shirt and is testing the material for use in shoes, with potential future applications replacing leather or wool in outerwear. The team participated in the RebelBio accelerator (2017) and Fashion for Good – Plug and Play (2018), and in November secured a $2.2 million seed investment.

No current team members are available.