Rainmatter, Mela Ventures invest in altM, a specialty chemicals startup founded by two former Tesla engineers

Bengaluru-based altM, a tech-startup that converts agricultural residue into high-performance industrial chemicals, has raised $10.3 million in Series A funding to support commercial manufacturing, customer deployments, and expansion of altM's specialty chemicals platform.

The current round of funding has seen new investors Rainmatter by Zerodha and Mela Ventures joining existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures and Spectrum Impact, alongside strategic angel investors.

The funding will support the expansion of altM's manufacturing capabilities, research and development, customer qualification programs, and engineering and commercial teams as the company moves from pilot-scale production toward commercial manufacturing.

"We are pleased to partner with altM as they move into commercial-scale production. Re-wiring foundational supply chains away from fossil-derived inputs is one of the most critical challenges facing modern manufacturing today. India possesses an immense domestic agricultural residue base, and by transforming this surplus into high-performance biochemicals, Apoorv and Yugal are unlocking strategic industrial value. The altM team has demonstrated outstanding technical depth alongside strict commercial discipline, and we are proud to support their long-term vision to build a globally relevant materials platform from India,” said Abhinav Negi, Lead - Climate & Deep Tech, Rainmatter by Zerodha.

Founded in 2022 by former Tesla engineers Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, with bioprocessing scientist Dr. Harshad Velankar later joining as Chief Scientific Officer, altM is developing a specialty chemicals platform that converts agricultural residue into high-performance industrial chemicals.

altM's processes convert lignocellulosic biomass, including sugarcane bagasse, rice straw and other agricultural residues, into materials for beauty and personal care, textiles, industrial chemicals, construction, packaging, and consumer goods. The platform uses the major fractions of biomass, including cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, to produce multiple products from a single feedstock. This enables agricultural residue to be used as a source of industrial carbon and reduces reliance on fossil-derived raw materials.

"Solving DeepTech problems involves research and understanding interplay of multiple areas. altM is tackling one of the hardest problems in industrial chemistry which is creating new age materials that can match the performance of fossil-derived inputs while fundamentally changing where their carbon comes from. At Mela, we like to invest at the inflection point, and with altM we think moment is here for creating new age materials which are more environmentally friendly,” said Krishnakumar N, Managing Partner, Mela Ventures.