French bio-tech company Pili is using part of the $15.8 million in Series A funding it received earlier this year to build out an operations team.
The company announced last week that it has hired Alain Pinchart, ex-CEO of Noveal, a development and manufacturing subsidiary of L’Oreal group, as director of operations and Yves Combret, previously director of strategic projects at Adionics, a lithium extraction technology company, as production manager.
The newly formed department will be responsible for completing the industrialization of Pili processes and managing the production of the company’s product portfolio. This department will also be in charge of building a large-scale manufacturing site.
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“I’m delighted to welcome Alain and Yves and thrilled to strengthen the operations team with expert profiles who have already managed industrial plants in the past—with up to 200 employees—and took part in the industrialization of numerous processes, more than 20 in total,” said Guillaume Boissonnat-Wu, Pili scientific and industrial director.
Founded in 2015, Pili develops and produces bio–based dyes and pigments to help the color industry reduce its environmental footprint. Through hybrid technology that combines green chemistry and industrial fermentation in a process comparable to brewing beer, the company offers an ecological and competitive alternative to petrochemical dyes and pigments.
Pili aims to replace petro-based indigo with its bio-based alternative, “drastically reducing oil dependence,” and more than halving its CO2 emissions. Compared to classic petrochemical dyes, Pili states that its microorganisms produce the same amount of dye without petrol or chemicals and need just one-fifth of the usual water amount while growing at room temperature.
In the coming months, Pili plans to build a production demonstrator on the Roches-Roussillon (38) chemical platform managed by GIE Osiris. The company said it expects to provide customers with its first tons of indigo in the near future.
In March, Pili received a cash injection led by Bank Bpifrance to help produce the first tons of high-performance biobased indigo. It previously secured several million euros of pre-orders of biobased dyes and pigments in the textile, ink and paints sectors.
