A London-based startup, Epoch Biodesign, has secured $18.3 million in Series A funding to scale its innovative approach to biorecycling plastic waste. The company, founded in 2019 by Jacob Nathan, whose initial concept was a high school science project, has developed enzymes capable of breaking down plastic. The new funding round, which was oversubscribed, will enable Epoch Biodesign to transfer its biorecycling process from the lab to its first production facility and aims for commercial-scale capacity by 2028.
Epoch Biodesign’s technology utilizes a multidisciplinary team of over 30 chemists, biologists, and software engineers. The company plans to roughly double its team size within the next year as it prepares to ramp up operations. The initial production facility is planned to process up to 150 tons of waste annually, according to Nathan.
The global plastic waste problem is staggering, with around 400 million tons generated each year, as noted by the UN. Only a small percentage of this is currently recycled, which highlights a problem that Epoch Biodesign hopes to solve. Virgin plastic still remains cheaper than recycling, but there are severe environmental and health costs that must be addressed. Simultaneously, regulators and businesses are under increasing pressure to address plastic pollution. Startups are actively developing various technologies to tackle the issue, including AI-driven sorting and non-fossil-fuel-based alternatives, with biorecycling emerging as a pivotal approach.
Epoch Biodesign is building a library of plastic-digesting enzymes, initially focusing on polyester and two types of nylon used widely in synthetic fabrics. The enzyme process involves industrial sorting and pre-treatment, depolymerization, purification and repolymerization to create ready-to-use nylon and polyester.
While plastic-ingesting enzymes exist in nature, they are too slow to provide a practical solution to the waste problem, compounded by the diversity of plastic types. A major part of Epoch Biodesign’s work is focused on speeding up the discovery of new biological catalysts. They utilize generative AI and large language models. Nathan explains that the complexity of biology is a major hurdle, but AI helps to understand and process large datasets. The company is leveraging GenAI to accelerate enzyme identification by analyzing and fine-tuning algorithms with information on amino acids and proteins, enhanced by proprietary findings from internal lab research on plastic-eating enzymes.
“We’ve been able to generate tens of thousands of plastic-eating enzymes in our lab that are unique,” states Nathan. The process involves identifying potential enzyme candidates through AI, followed by testing that yields further data to iterate the AI models until suitable enzymes are found. “We’re concentrating hundreds of millions of years, billions of years of evolution into a few cycles in the lab that happen over the course of days, weeks, months. We’re making big evolutionary jumps that would be very unlikely to happen just naturally based on random mutations, natural selection,” he states. The AI-based approach has resulted in speed improvements of up to 25x, according to Nathan.
Nathan notes that the enhanced efficiency translates to lower enzyme usage, reduced manufacturing costs, and ultimately a lower cost of goods. Epoch’s aim is to develop processes that are cost-competitive with materials currently made from fossil carbon, with the added benefit of not requiring high temperatures. The process yields up to 90% of the waste in a reusable state, and biorecycling produces no unwanted byproducts, further reducing costs.
The startup has developed three distinct processes to recycle three different types of plastics, focused on commercial scale-up with their new Series A funding. The methods utilize new biochemical processes. These technologies completely shift the cost bases of recycling into new areas that basically make recycling the cheaper option compared to virgin material, the founder says. A key part of this is that less energy is required, compared to other recycling processes.
Epoch Biodesign’s approach to recycling is designed to capture the potential of additional purification by allowing enzymes to “scrub” undesirable elements that are contained within some kinds of plastics. While the process cannot solve the microplastics problem, Nathan maintains that the company’s approach will promote new synthetic plastic being made with recycled materials rather than fossil fuels. The company aims to develop enzymes for other types of plastic waste as well.
The Series A round also includes a strategic investment from Inditex, the parent company of Zara. Inditex has entered a multi-year “joint development agreement” with Epoch. The partnership aims to improve the sustainability of the fashion industry, particularly given rising public awareness concerning the impact of fashion on the plastic crisis. “We want to produce material that’s actually useful,” explains Nathan. “We want to produce something for brands that is, you know, indistinguishable from the stuff that they’re using today — so in order for that to be true, we need to go through various tests. And so having, effectively, the machinery of a business like Inditex with the scale that they have just helps us accelerate that process.”
The Series A was led by Extantia Capital, with participation from other investors, alongside a $1 million grant from the U.K. government.
