PILI to industrialize biobased high-performance pigment production

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Type of post: NEWS.

PILI, company developing renewable colors, will start the industrialization of its first biobased pigments for paints and inks with a new 4 M€ financing round.

Figure 1. PILI to industrialize biobased high-performance pigment production (taken form the press release)

PILI’s fermentation and sustainable chemistry processes enable the production of high performance and environmentally friendly colors. Its technology has the potential to get rid of petroleum and polluting chemicals involved in the production of colors in textile, plastic, paint and ink sectors. Founded in 2015, PILI is based at Toulouse White Biotechnology (TWB) and at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) in Paris. The team now consists of more than twenty people, the company has invested over 10 M€ since its creation thanks to public and private investors such as BPI France, SOSV, Elaia, seasoned entrepreneurs and many individual investors.

The new funding will help scaling up the production of biobased pigments and testing them in industrial ink and paint formulations. These products will considerably reduce the environmental footprint of these applications. By using local renewable raw materials, these processes will make it possible to significantly reduce the color industry's CO2 emissions on a global scale as well as the use of fossil materials (oil, coal). They will also make it possible to reduce the strong dependence of several industrial sectors on imports while recreating a European supply. PILI will start to send textile dyestuff samples in 2022 for customer qualification tests.

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