GALY CO., a climate tech company that makes sustainable cellular agriculture products based in Boston, Mass., announced the closing of an oversubscribed $33 million Series B financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with additional participation from new investors H&M Group and Inditex.
The money will primarily fund GALY’s research and development on its cellular agriculture platform and its flagship product, GALY Cotton.
“We are thrilled to have investors who recognize the crucial role that our climate adaptation technology will play in our daily lives,” says Luciano Bueno, CEO and founder of GALY. “Climate change exposes the fragility of agricultural supply chains, and the recent rise in cocoa prices is a stark reminder of the new normal we face. Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’ Soon, the world will face increased volatility in conventional agriculture as extreme weather conditions become more frequent. When that time comes, GALY will be ready, better equipping our economy to withstand these shocks.”
Founded in 2019 with a mission to find ethical and sustainable agricultural solutions, GALY Cotton is the company’s first product targeting conventional cotton practices. GALY Cotton replicates traditional cotton in quality, retaining its exact attributes because it originates from a plant, offering ESG benefits and customization. With this success, GALY is expanding its cellular agriculture platform beyond cotton to include other plant cell-based products.
In addition to BEV, H&M Group and Inditex, the oversubscribed investment round was joined by repeat investors including Material Impact, Eighty Eighty Group, Artesian, BRINC and Reaction Global. Indorama Ventures, Endeavor Scale-up Ventures, and Unreasonable also participated, among others.
“Agriculture is arguably the industry sector most impacted by climate change, while also being a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions itself,” says Carmichael Roberts, BEV. “We need alternatives that can complement traditional agriculture without contributing to emissions or creating an overreliance on unstable supply chains. GALY’s cellular agriculture technology provides a solution to these challenges, while enhancing resource efficiency and building climate resiliency for the sector.”
“GALY has developed a promising technology to reduce the impact of cotton production on water, chemicals and soil use. Taking this equity interest marks a significant step in our commitment to advancing toward an innovative and more responsible textile industry. By investing in cutting-edge technologies for producing next-generation fibers, we are not only moving towards our goal of exclusively using materials with a lower environmental impact, but also actively shaping the transformation of the industry through strategic capital investments,” says Óscar García Maceiras, CEO of Inditex.
“GALY’s lab-grown cotton is on the verge of a breakthrough and could reduce reliance on virgin cotton if successful. We’ve been supporting the company’s progress since 2019 and are really excited to be part of this latest investment round. About 60% of the materials we source for our products are cotton and we have high ambitions that all our materials come from recycled or other sustainable sources by 2030, so partnering with GALY makes perfect sense,” says Martin Ekenbark, H&M Group, Circular Innovation Lab lead and board observer at GALY.
Leave A Comment