Intrinsic Foundries, a carbon-to-value biomanufacturing platform, has raised ₹12 crore (approximately $1.4 million) in a Seed funding round. Transition VC led this strategic investment. The capital injection will be a major milestone for the Hazaribagh-based startup that plans to convert industrial waste into sustainable wealth.

Its newly acquired funds will be strategically invested to implement industrial pilots, increase the current research, and file new intellectual properties (IPs) according to a press release of the company. The startup will increase the size of its engineering and commercial teams, enhance its local production powers, and form a legal presence in the United States to reinforce its market development strategies across the world.

Core and technological depth

Intrinsic Foundries is a biology-industrial technology intersectional startup, founded in 2023 by Shreyansh Jain, Sanjay Jain, and Umang Jain. The firm has engineered a proprietary biomanufacturing platform, which aims at transforming industrial emissions, effluents, and residues into high-quality biochemicals. 

The startup can provide scalable and revenue-optimal decarbonization through the use of modular photobioreactors and automated solutions. With this model, industrial players are in a position to not only minimize their carbon footprint but also to generate new sources of revenue by converting harmful emissions into raw materials that are needed by different high-value industries.

The main part of the technological strong potential of Intrinsic Foundries is its carbon biorefinery platform. This system has proprietary microbial biorefinery systems and modular photobioreactors integrated with Factory 4.0 automation. 

The microalgae-based biorefinery is the first industry of focus of the platform that aims at capturing industrial carbon emissions and converting them into biological systems. The startup can use these biological processes to transform captured carbon into high-value biochemicals that global industries can use as sustainable ingredients.

Besides the microalgae-based systems, Intrinsic Foundries is also developing other microbial biorefineries, such as the yeast systems. With the incorporation of automation, the platform can sustain the operations with a high level of reliability, as well as scale the capture and conversion processes. 

This technological breadth helps the firm to be able to provide sustainable materials in various areas, such as food, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic, agricultural, and high-technology materials. Through these sustainable solutions, Intrinsic Foundries assists the world in moving beyond fossil-derived inputs in its supply chains and adopting bio-based solutions.

Market expansion and industrial partnerships

The technology of Intrinsic Foundries has already been shown to be practically viable with major milestones in the field. In the year preceding, the company says it has successfully completed a Proof of Concept (PoC) at a thermal power plant. 

This PoC showed that the platform would be able to sustain longer periods of continuous carbon capture and operational reliability even in a harsh industrial setting. This practical affirmation has given the startup the push that it requires to enhance its business deals in various heavy industries.

The startup is now developing business alliances with other industrial cohorts in industries like cement, steel, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and food systems. The focus of these partnerships is to incorporate the modular systems of Intrinsic Foundries into the current industrial processes. 

In the 12-24 months, the company will contract several industrial pilots to demonstrate again how its revenue-positive decarbonization model can be scaled even more. Such pilots will act as a stepping stone to full-scale commercial implementation, and industrial giants will start subsidizing their emissions as an asset instead of a burden.

The decision to form a US organization highlights the international aspirations of Intrinsic Foundries. The company is aware of the fact that the supply of sustainable biochemicals and carbon-to-value solutions is a global need. With its establishment in the United States, the startup will be able to access international markets and orient its global development policy in international sustainability guidelines. 

With increasing scrutiny of companies (regulatory and consumer) to use sustainable materials, Intrinsic Foundries is poised to play an important role as a supplier in the burgeoning bio-economy. This vision is further justified by the support Transition VC provides, as the investment company targets startups that can not only make a difference but also generate high financial results.

Conclusion

The ₹12 crore seed round success of Intrinsic Foundries is an indicator of an increased willingness to invest in innovative climate tech solutions among the Indian startup ecosystem. Through the integration of proprietary biological systems with high-end automation, the company has developed a differentiated carbon-to-value offering that answers the desperate decarbonization required in the industries.

The conversion of industrial waste into high-quality biochemicals provides a roadmap to a circular economy in which emissions are used to produce useful products. With Intrinsic Foundries rolling out pilots and increasing its presence in the world in the next few years, its influence in the sustainable materials sector and industrial carbon management will rise substantially.