If all that glitters cannot be gold, must it be plastic? Sparxell thinks not. Now, a grant from the European Commission will help the bio-inspired startup find out.
The Cambridge spin-out secured roughly a $2.15 million grant (1.9 million euros) from the European Innovation Council (EIC) as the sustainable colorant technologist works to overcome the “critical technical barriers” with scaling production.
The funding—awarded to “disruptive innovations addressing global challenges,” per Horizon Europe—adds to Sparxell’s previous investments and will help secure the startup’s foothold in the $48 billion global colorant market. According to Precedence Research, the whitespace in the market sits around a “healthy compound annual growth rate of up to 12.22 percent. The timing’s right, too, as Sparxell reported
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“This European Innovation Council funding is transformative for Sparxell, allowing us to accelerate our manufacturing scale-up and overcome key technical challenges much earlier in our development pathway,” Benjamin Droguet, founder and CEO of Sparxell, said. “With our plant-based technology, we’re offering industries a fundamentally different approach to color that works with nature rather than against it while meeting the highest performance standards.”
Sparxell was founded in 2022 after scientists discovered a way to replicate vibrant hues found in nature using plant-based cellulose—a renewable, biodegradable resource extracted from waste streams. Sparxell’s pigments use the same material that plants and animals use, the company said, to produce its fade-resistant colorants. Thus, its products are toxin-free pigments that allegedly last longer than the incumbent options on the market.
Since “spinning out” in 2023, Sparxell said it has commercially validated 25 fully-funded pilot projects. Since joining LVMH’s La Maison des Startups accelerator program last September, Sparxell said it’s befriended the luxury market, connecting with a handful of the house’s heritage brands, like Loewe and Givenchy.
Previously, the color platform technology company was acknowledged by the Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Prize back in November 2023 (with $100,000) before taking home the $250,000 Sustainable Collaborative Prize from Morgan Stanley that December.
Last month, Sparxell was named “Best Sustainability Venture” by the Falling Walls Foundation. Last week in Paris, the eco tech developer took home two more awards from the ChangeNow Summit (including the Coups de Cœur jury-decreed honor) at its annual ESG showcase. This year’s summit had 15 major partners (like Kering and Moët Hennessy) and 12 ecosystem partners (like B Lab and Clean Tech Open).
In addition to LVMH’s La Maison des Startups, Sparxell is also part of the Respond Accelerator by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, the automotive group’s independent corporate foundation that was named for the Nazi-affiliated industrialist for reportedly rescuing the car czar from bankruptcy (and/or Daimler-Benz) back in 1959. Sparxell joined the six-month program’s fifth cohort, last April. In operation with the European startup hub UnternehmerTUM, the program has, since launching in 2020, supported over 50 startups solving for net-zero.
Currently, Sparxell said, the team is focused on fundraising to accelerate market adoption across various industrial verticals.
