500 Startups backs $2.55m funding in Singapore’s SEPPURE

Singapore-based chemical separation technology startup SEPPURE has announced raising $2.55 million in its seed funding round backed by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm and accelerator 500 Startups.

The funding round was led by US-based multi-stage venture fund SOSV and participated by Singapore government-owned innovation platform SGInnovate, Entrepreneur First, Belmond Capital, Koh Boon Hwee (Chairman of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Board of Trustees, and other prominent investors.

In a statement, SEPPURE, founded last year by Mohammad Farahani and Amir Taheri, said the fresh funding will be used to scale-up the production of chemical-resistant nano-filters and finance industrial-scale pilots with potential customers.
SEPPURE creates a new generation of nano-filters for chemical separation and purification in multiple industries. Many global industries, from food to pharmaceuticals, rely on the science behind chemical separation and purification.

These processes, however, have become one of the world’s largest polluters, accounting for up to 15 percent of the planet’s entire energy consumption, the startup said.

“By actively reducing the overall ecological footprint of one of the most polluting industries worldwide, we are conserving billions of gallons of water typically used by the traditional distillation process, as well as a million tonnes in unnecessary organic compound emissions,” the company said on its website.

SEPPURE last raised $180,000 in its pre-Seed funding round backed by Entrepreneur First, SOSV, and US-based full-stack accelerator for hardware startups HAX, in December 2018.

“SEPPURE’s technology represents a quantum leap in the nanofiltration arena as it significantly reduces waste and inefficiency in commonly used chemical separation processes,” said Vishal Harnal, General Partner at 500 Startups. Farahani received his Ph.D. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from the National University of Singapore while Taheri received his Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University.

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