{
  "id": 18217853,
  "title": "altM raises $10.3M in Series A funding led by Rainmatter, Mela Ventures",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/altm-raises-10-3m-in-series-a-funding-led-by-rainmatter-mela-ventures",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-05T00:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "YourStory",
    "slug": "yourstory",
    "url": "https://yourstory.com/2026/11/altm-raises-103m-series-a-funding-rainmatter-mela-ventures"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Specialty chemicals company altM has secured $10.3 million in Series A funding, led by venture capital firms Rainmatter and Mela Ventures. The Bengaluru-based firm, founded by Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain in 2022, plans to use the investment to scale manufacturing, bolster research and development, support customer qualification programs, and expand its engineering and commercial teams. Existing investors Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Aureolis Ventures, Spectrum Impact, and strategic angel investors also participated in the funding round.\n\naltM specializes in converting lignocellulosic biomass, such as sugarcane bagasse and rice straw, into industrial chemicals. The company's processes utilize cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin components from biomass to generate multiple products from a single feedstock. Its products cater to industries like beauty and personal care, textiles, construction, packaging, and consumer goods, focusing on bio-based alternatives to fossil-derived raw materials.\n\nRainmatter's Climate & DeepTech Lead Abhinav Negi expressed enthusiasm for partnering with altM as it transitions from pilot-scale production to commercial manufacturing, highlighting the importance of moving away from fossil-derived inputs in supply chains. Mela Ventures' Managing Partner Krishnakumar N emphasized the difficulty of industrial chemistry in developing new-age materials that match the performance of fossil-derived inputs while changing their carbon sources.\n\nSince raising a $3.5 million seed round in 2023, altM has established an integrated research and pilot manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, nearly quintupling its laboratory footprint and taking six molecules to demonstration scale, with three selected for pilot plant production. The company is developing lignin-derived SPF boosters, cellulose-based rheology modifiers, and bio-derived ferulic acid for cosmetics and personal care formulations. Industrial manufacturing has traditionally relied on fossil carbon for over a century, but altM aims to create new industrial carbon sources from agricultural residue, focusing on developing materials and manufacturing processes that meet performance, cost, quality, and scalability requirements for industrial applications.",
  "summary": "Bengaluru-based altM will use the funds to expand its manufacturing capacity, strengthen research and development, support customer qualification programmes, and grow its engineering and commercial teams.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}