Growing nature-inspired companies
We back exceptional founders turning nature-inspired technologies into scalable companies.
Breakthrough science needs the right conditions to grow
Technical founders are building two things at once: the technology and the company, and great technologies rarely fail because the science is weak.
The harder part for science is turning it into a market, a customer and a scalable business.
We provide capital allocation + embedded operator who works alongside the founders on company building from day one.
Breakthrough science needs the right conditions to grow
Technical founders are building two things at once: the technology and the company, and great technologies rarely fail because the science is weak.
The harder part for science is turning it into a market, a customer and a scalable business.
We provide capital allocation + embedded operator who works alongside the founders on company building from day one.
We are your partner
We are battle-tested entrepreneurs bringing company-building to the decisions that matter early: where to play, what to build, how to sell and how to scale.
We partner with founders to develop their venture from the ground up, helping them assemble the right team, design the product, and validate the market, business model, and go-to-market strategy.
As part of Anima’s portfolio, our founding partner Alpha Star, can co-invest up to 3M€ on following rounds.
We only partner with 2-4 companies per year. That focus allows us to commit real time, expertise and hands on execution to every venture, working closely with founders through the decisions and milestones that shape the company.
We build flexible partnerships, from advisory equity and embedded operational support to investments of up to €1M, being aligned and engaged by your side.
Who we work with
We work with researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to build the next generation of climate-positive ventures, by design, not by chance.
Pre-seed startups
We join your team as a new empowering member. We bring from hands-on execution to capital as your first funder, together with a proven methodology to build and derisk the company with you.
Discover our ventures
Through the leading AI platform for biomimetic R&D, Asteria connects engineers with nature’s unique ingenuity to design tomorrow’s sustainable solutions.
H&B Materials develops a biosourced water-repellent textile treatment derived from rapeseed fatty acids, offering industrial manufacturers a PFAS-free, plug-and-play alternative that preserves the colour, feel and breathability of the fabric.
Renature develops Phyli®, a 100% plant-based flexible material, derived from agricultural by-products, offering luxury manufacturers a solvent-free, plastic-free and fully circular alternative to animal leather and synthetic leather that works directly on existing production lines.
Using nature-inspired strategies to create lower cost and more sustainable solutions for urgent water challenges such as PFAS and heavy metal contamination.
Myc develops the first platform of machinable mycelium-based materials, offering industrial manufacturers a biosourced, scalable alternative to polyurethane foams and MDF that works directly on standard CNC machines.
Each ton of rare earths creates 2,000 tons of toxic waste, and demand will rise 7x by 2040. REEcover extracts rare earths elements from waste with 10x better separation, offering a sovereign, cleaner, circular alternative to mining.
BioWraptor’s peptide-based coating stabilizes biologics at room temperature, eliminating cold-chain dependence across diagnostics, research tools and medicines.
Leonina Bio develops a bacterial biosensor kit detecting PFAS on-site in 24h, enabling large-scale monitoring and earlier detection for faster environmental decisions.
Tera Mira turns seaweed into stretch fibres, replacing elastane with a bio-based alternative, compatible with existing spinning infrastructure.
AMYLEN harnesses animal proteins to generate clean electricity from ambient humidity, as a maintenance-free power source for low-power devices.
NOIET upcycles oat and rice byproducts through microbial fermentation into a clean-label ingredient that preserves and enriches food without synthetic additives.
Formutis uses computationally generated, bio-inspired surface geometries to deliver 2x better grip on black ice using standard TPU, no spikes, no specialty materials.
PureZone’s additive turns coatings into active CO₂- and VOC-reducing surfaces, capturing up to 5x more CO₂ than alternatives with no energy input.
Oleo turns lignocellulosic waste into carbon-negative oil for aviation fuel via yeast fermentation, 22% cheaper than seed oils and refinery-compatible.
Tumbleweed deploys wind-driven spherical rovers in autonomous swarms to map extreme, remote environments on Earth and Mars at a fraction of the cost.
C1 Bio engineers soil bacteria to convert waste glycerol into bio-based materials, replacing petroleum-derived chemicals in semiconductor manufacturing.
Water contamination from PFAS, heavy metals, and industrial chemicals is a growing crisis. Xatoms uses AI and quantum chemistry to create photocatalysts for chemical-free water purification with sunlight or LEDs.
UV exposure causes 3M+ skin cancer cases yearly, shorten product lifespans by 50%, costing billions in damage. Melwear’s responsive membranes incorporate bacterial melanin to dynamically darken upon exposure to UV rays.
Out of the Lab
50,000€ to get your bioinspired research out of the lab and into the world!
The Out of the Lab Award exists to help researchers and early-stage teams transform bioinspired research into successful ventures. We’re looking for breakthrough ideas that have a positive impact on our planet. If you’re a researcher, a project owner or a pre-seed startup working on something nature-inspired with real-world potential and want to take it beyond the lab, this is for you !
2027 application open: March 2027
Meet our team
A venture studio is only as strong as the ecosystem it can activate. Anima brings founders operators, decision-makers, investors, and specialists to accelerate your growth. We operate across product, brand, marketing, GTM, legal, talent and impact.