Solugen
The market
The chemicals industry is responsible for 6 percent of annual global emissions and has annual revenue of approximately USD 6 trillion. We believe that over time Solugen will be able to capture a significant portion of this, due to the high customer imperative to switch to sustainable materials, increase supply chain security, and improve price-performance fit and customization.
These factors enable Solugen to target customers across various sectors, including energy, water treatment, agriculture, construction, HI&I (Household, Industrial & Institutional Care), and food & beverage.
The company
Solugen is a Houston-based company that aims to decarbonize the chemicals industry. Founded by Gaurab Chakrabarti and Sean Hunt in 2016, the company has developed, and is now scaling, an industrial green chemicals platform.
The company uses biologically engineered enzymatic catalysis and metal catalysis to produce organic acids and platform chemicals from sugar instead of petroleum, resulting in safer, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly chemical products. Solugen uses these AI-engineered enzymes and metal catalysts, as well as bio-based feedstock, to bypass the limitations of fermentation and petrochemicals—the two methods for manufacturing chemicals historically.
Solugen can make higher performance chemicals at lower prices than incumbents and can directly address supply chain risks by co-locating manufacturing sites with a feedstock provider, an offtake partner, or ideally both. Solugen’s first commercial plant has been operational since 2022, and a second plant co-located with agricultural supply chain manager and processor application data management (ADM) is expected to start production in 2025.
Solugen can make higher performance chemicals at lower prices than incumbents and can directly address supply chain risks by co-locating manufacturing sites with a feedstock provider, an offtake partner, or ideally both. Solugen’s first commercial plant has been operational since 2022, and a second plant co-located with agricultural supply chain manager and processor application data management (ADM) is expected to start production in 2025.here
The Investment Case
Kinnevik believes that Solugen is the premier company disrupting and decarbonizing the USD 6 trillion chemicals industry. Solugen has achieved multiple breakthroughs, and its novel AI-enabled chemienzymatic approach to chemical production with substantial IP protection produces safer, cleaner, cheaper, more customizable chemical products.
The efficiency of its production process drives higher yields and allows for smaller, more flexible, lower-capex modular plants (Bioforges) that it co-locates with upstream and downstream partners, reducing the associated carbon footprint and supply chain-related risks.
The company is on a path to generate revenue of $800 million by 2030. It already has products at commercial scale with a significant total addressable market (TAM) within industrial use cases. Solugen now has proven technology and execution, and its sales team has secured strong commercial indications for its first two facilities with its pipeline extending significantly beyond that.
Finally, the company is led by an exceptional management team with an ambitious and far-reaching vision and is supported by a blue-chip cap table consisting of many of the strongest investors within climate tech including Baillie Gifford, Carbon Direct, Lower Carbon Capital, Temasek, and GIC. For these reasons, Kinnevik believes that Solugen has the potential to become a carbon tech decacorn over time.
