Recombinant silk producer AMSilk raises €29m

New investors Novo Holdings, Cargill and ER Capital led the €29m Series C round that was co-financed by existing investors MIG Verwaltungs AG and ATHOS KG. AMSilk announced it will use fresh capital to accelerate commercialisation of its microbially-produced silk materials. Upon closing of the round, Kartik Dharmadhikari, Partner and Anders Bendsen Spohr, Senior Partner at Novo Holdings will join the Supervisory Board.  

Munich-based AMSilk GmbH is a world leader in supplying economically sustainable synthetic silk materials. Its products are made using plant-based sugar as carbon source via scalable bacterial fermentation and have been demonstrated to show extraordinary mechanical and biochemical properties, opening up many diverse industrial applications.

According to the company, its 100% biodegradable materials will revolutionise products such as high-performance sports clothing and medical implants. The financing will be used to accelerate the ongoing scale-up of AMSilk’s industrial production and  drive its geographic expansion.  

AMSilk’s recombinantly produced biopolymers show exactly the functional properties of the natural product they are based on. AMSilk offers its Biosteel® fibers for textiles and industrial applications and has piloted collaborations with Adidas and Airbus. A prototype running shoe was 30% lighter than running shoes made from synthetic not biodegradable fibres. Composite materials developed in collaboration with Airbus would allow to save weight in the construction of aircraft, potentially improving its bad CO₂ footprint.