SUMMARY
altM is a 2022-founded cleantech startup that transforms agricultural and industrial waste into scalable, low-carbon bio-chemicals and materials using its proprietary biorefinery platform, altMORPH
The founders identified India’s underutilised agri-residue and the global demand for greener alternatives as a massive opportunity to build cost-competitive, carbon-negative molecules for industries like beauty, textiles, and adhesives
With $3.5 Mn in funding and a pilot plant nearing completion, altM is preparing to enter the revenue stage
India has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, and the country seems to be serious about its goal, at least from the looks of it. A prime example is Delhi which, under its recently announced Delhi Air Pollution Mitigation Plan 2025, has decided to prohibit the entry of end-of-life vehicles from July 2025 and encourage the plying of only BS-VI, CNG and electric commercial vehicles in the city, starting this November.
Besides, the Delhi government plans to deploy 1,000 water sprinklers, 140 anti-smog guns and 70 mechanical sweepers. Cloud-seeding pilots and the installation of mist sprayers are also being planned as measures to curb pollution.
However, is this enough to unclog the choked skies of regions like Delhi, infamous for an air quality index (AQI) that often exceeds 500 marks?
Indians continue to inhale poor-quality air, despite efforts by state governments to reduce pollution. Despite exhaustive endeavours and draining millions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money, the pollution puzzle remains unsolved.
It raises a serious question — Have we considered looking elsewhere? Maybe vehicles are just one piece of the puzzle, and the key to a pollution-free India lies in decarbonising some of the most emission-intensive sectors like agriculture, energy, waste management, iron and steel, cement and construction. And, let’s not get started on how stubble burning has become India’s biggest sorrow.
This is precisely what altM, a 2022-founded cleantech startup, is doing — looking elsewhere. Founded by Yugal Raj Jain, Apoorv Garg, and Harshad Velankar in 2022, altM develops and manufactures scalable bio-chemicals and bioenergy solutions to reduce carbon footprint across the industrial value chain. altM focusses on transforming agricultural residues and industrial bio-waste into high-value, bio-based materials.
Having raised $3.5 Mn since its inception, it enjoys the backing of investors like Omnivore, Theia Ventures, and Thai Wah Ventures.
Takes One To Be One
With business in their DNA, both Jain and Garg had an intense desire to build something on their own — something that could change the world for good. However, for that to happen, they had to find what they could disrupt.
Therefore, the duo of cofounders spent years gaining hands-on experience across industries and geographies. However, the founders hadn’t met each other. Their destinies crossed paths at Tesla, where Jain worked as a senior engineering programme manager and Garg was the team lead of the global supply chain management wing.
After returning to India, they spent about two years helping founders working in the climate tech and deeptech domains. During this time, they also worked closely with people building solutions in robotics, automotive, battery technology, and alternative materials.
Through this, they gained insights into how businesses were being built in India. In doing so, they discovered what it takes to be a founder. After all, it takes one to be one.
They also spoke extensively with founders in Europe and the US, and university researchers and professors across the world.
In addition, they engaged with multiple researchers from leading universities across the European Union, where significant grants have been awarded for biorefinery research. It was through this network that they connected with Velankar, now the chief scientific officer and cofounder of altM.
Before launching altM, the trio of founders came together to identify critical gaps in the sustainability and materials space. They discovered two sides of the problem — first, the abundance of agricultural residues in India that is readily and cheaply available but largely underutilised, and the second was the growing global concern over chemicals that are polluting the environment.
These insights shaped the foundation of altM.
The founders chose agricultural residue as their core raw material because it remains one of the most underutilised resources globally.
“Often misunderstood as mere waste, agricultural residue has immense potential. Its two primary components are cellulose and lignin, both biopolymers. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth, and lignin is the second. These molecules form a strong foundation for building scalable biochemical supply chains,” Garg said.
By tapping into this overlooked input, the founders saw an opportunity to create a sustainable, abundant, and economically viable pathway for producing green chemicals and materials.
Breaking Down The altM Innovation Stack
At the heart of altM’s innovation is its proprietary biorefinery platform, altMORPH, which operates in two key stages.
The first stage is deconstruction, where lignocellulosic biomass (a collective term for agricultural and industrial waste) is broken down into its fundamental components, namely cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and sometimes silica.
“We follow a proprietary thermochemical fractionation process that is both energy-efficient and scalable. It operates at sub-200°C, under no external pressure, and uses only mild chemicals — setting it apart in terms of sustainability and cost-effectiveness,” said cofounder Jain.
The second stage is upgradation, where these core components are converted into high-value bio-chemicals and bio-based materials through a series of novel, in-house processes.
These outputs can serve a wide range of industries — from beauty and personal care to textiles, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and even bioenergy.
According to Jain, the resulting materials are not only industrial-grade and cost-competitive but also come with a significantly lower carbon footprint than traditional chemical alternatives.
The technology for altMORPH has been in development for more than two and a half years. As a result of this deep R&D, the company has filed three patents and holds three more provisional patents.
Moving on, altM has been deeply focussed on technology and material innovation for the last three years. The founding team has invested significant time and effort in developing a proprietary process that is not only capital-efficient but also operationally lean.
“A key distinction of altM’s technology lies in its biomass agnosticism. Unlike most bioprocessing technologies, which are committed to specific feedstocks such as corn or sugarcane and limited to producing fuels or plastics, altM’s platform allows for a multi-crop to multi-material mapping, making it far more adaptable and scalable,” Garg said.
Alongside process innovation, the company has also prioritised material innovation. While complete life cycle assessments will be finalised after the pilot plant becomes operational, preliminary calculations and model-based assessments suggest that altM’s molecules are carbon-negative.
“In addition, early testing with partner companies shows that these molecules match or exceed the performance of fossil-derived chemicals,” one of the founders said, adding that the altM team has engineered these materials to deliver on the three pillars of cost, performance, and scalability to ensure that they are truly market-competitive.
With the pilot plant nearing completion, altM is shifting focus to two additional areas of innovation — supply chain design and operational efficiency. On the supply chain front, the team is building a decentralised, modular processing system based on the hub-and-spoke model. It allows localised processing near crop residue sources, significantly reducing logistics costs.
“This decentralised approach not only optimises logistics but also leads to exceptional chemical yield efficiency of over 90%, compared to sub-40% yields in traditional petrochemical processes,” Garg added.
Avoiding The Deeptech Trap
For most deeptech startups, brilliant ideas aren’t enough and commercial readiness still remains the biggest hurdle. To avoid falling into this trap, altM has stuck with a customer-first approach since the very outset.
Rather than focussing solely on research, the team actively engaged with industry partners. In 2022, altM began working with its first customer, ensuring market relevance alongside scientific innovation.
“We do research for the sake of production — our focus is always on what can be scaled. We speak to customers very early, even when we’re just at a readiness level of one or two, with only a proof of concept in the lab,” Garg said. The company’s first customer was a cosmetic formulator.
The startup began by developing ingredients used in products like face washes, toothpastes, shampoos, and conditioners — where thickeners play a key role in determining the texture and stability.
Through its proprietary process, altM created a bio-based thickener, launching its first minimum viable product (MVP) in early 2023.
Since then, the company has scaled up to developing six bio-based molecules, each tailored to a specific industry and linked to a dedicated customer.
Beyond beauty and personal care, altM aims to partner with the textile industry with a sustainable pulp for manufacturing viscose, and the wood industry with low-VOC adhesives that offer a greener alternative to conventional chemical binders.
What’s On The Cards?
The startup is now in the process of finishing its pilot manufacturing facility, which will be a critical turning point for altM. When operational, altM will shift into the early revenue generation stage.
The pilot facility has been engineered to process between 20 and 50 tonnes of biomass per year. The modular design enables altM to iterate on its portfolio of six molecules and adjust production according to demand in the marketplace.
The second phase is the buildout of altM’s initial commercial production plant, which is to be completed during the first half of 2027. The facility will step up the processing capacity to 1,000 tonnes per year.
In the future, altM also intends to expand the processing capacity from 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes a year to 4,000 tonnes. Ultimately, it aims to process 10,000 tonnes of biomass annually across multiple plants.
As of now, the company is targeting Europe as its first overseas market, particularly for sales and R&D. This is because Europe boasts an advanced ecosystem and increasing awareness about biochemicals and biomaterials.
Europe makes for an ideal destination because it is difficult to scale deeptech in India due to inadequate risk capital and protracted technology validation periods.
“Scaling up from pilot to commercial sizes necessitates high levels of funding, operational excellence and regulatory approvals,” a senior scientist at an IIT Madras incubator said.
On the demand side, these startups can face challenges from incumbent chemical players, as they command strong distribution networks and a price advantage.
All in all, altM is engineering a cleantech revolution at an industrial scale. While challenges persist, altM’s seems to be well-positioned to lead India’s next wave of deeptech innovation by decarbonising industries.
Source: www.inc42.com
