Bengaluru based altM has raised $10.3 million, about Rs 97.5 crore, in a Series A round to scale specialty chemicals made from agricultural residue.
The round was led by new investors Rainmatter by Zerodha and Mela Ventures. Existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact also took part, along with angel investors.
From crop waste to industrial ingredients
altM converts lignocellulosic biomass, including sugarcane bagasse, rice straw and other agricultural residues, into materials for industrial use. Its platform uses the main fractions of biomass, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, to make several products from a single feedstock.
Those products are aimed at beauty and personal care, textiles, industrial chemicals, construction, packaging and consumer goods. The pitch is straightforward. Materials that today come from fossil sources can instead come from crop residue that is often burned or discarded.
What the new money is for
altM will use the fresh capital to expand manufacturing, build its sales pipeline and continue research and development. A large share will go toward a 1,000 tonne per year commercial manufacturing facility planned for 2028.
Over the next five years, the company plans to expand capacity to 10,000 tonnes per year. It expects that scale could support $100 million to $200 million in annual revenue, depending on the molecules it produces.
The choice of lead investors fits that long build. Rainmatter invests Zerodha’s own capital as a perpetual fund with no fixed exit deadline, according to its own account of its climate and deep tech investing, which suits a manufacturing story that cannot be rushed.
A pilot plant ready to move into production
altM has completed installation of its 70 tonne per year pilot plant in Electronic City in Bengaluru and is preparing to begin commercial production.
Cofounder and chief executive Apoorv Garg said, “We have been installing it since late 2025 and finally finished the installation in 2026. It’s still in pre-production, and we’re getting the right certifications and validations to take it to production this month.”
The company expects to begin fulfilling purchase orders in the current quarter, with its first product launches planned for the following quarter.
It already works with nearly 30 beauty and personal care customers at different stages of development, testing and commercialisation, and 16 to 18 of them are in testing and active validation.
Its first products moving toward commercialisation include a lignin derived SPF booster for suncare, a cellulose based rheology modifier and bio derived ferulic acid for cosmetics and personal care formulations.
The company is focused on beauty and personal care first, while its research pipeline spans construction, electronics, automotive, polymers and battery materials.
Why the scale up is the real test
The numbers show how steep the next step is. Moving from a 70 tonne pilot plant to a 1,000 tonne commercial plant is roughly a fourteenfold jump, and the five year target of 10,000 tonnes is ten times larger again.
That is why the sales pipeline matters as much as the chemistry. A commercial plant needs firm orders before it is built, and altM says its current customer work is meant to provide that demand.
Behind the pipeline is a long research effort. altM has carried out more than 15,000 reactions at laboratory stage and translated over 500 reactions to demonstration stage.
It says it has cut molecule development time from 12 to 15 months to under six months, and it has filed six patents in India, with a seventh in progress.
Two former Tesla engineers behind the bet
altM was founded in 2022 by Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, both former Tesla executives. Garg worked on factory and supply chain launches at Tesla after starting at Suzuki and later working at Prometheus Fuels, while Jain spent five years at Tesla managing production and engineering launches.
The latest round comes nearly three years after altM raised $3.5 million in a seed round in 2023.
Since then, it has built an integrated research and pilot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, expanded its laboratory footprint nearly fivefold and advanced six molecules to demonstration stage, with three selected for pilot production.
The test now is execution at commercial scale. If altM can turn its pilot output and customer validations into steady orders, crop residue becomes a serious industrial feedstock rather than a promising laboratory idea.
