With the help of new investors H&M Group and Inditex, the parent company of Zara, the agricultural startup Galy Co., based near Boston, has raised $33 million in an oversubscribed Series B fundraising round headed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV). The money will go into R&D and the expansion of Galy’s signature product, lab-grown cotton, which is expected to have a much smaller environmental impact than conventional cotton cultivation.
Compared to traditional cotton, galy cotton requires 99 percent less water, 97 percent less land, and emits 77 percent less CO2. Luciano Bueno, the founder and CEO of the company, stressed the significance of creating alternative agricultural solutions to counteract the growing threat posed by climate change. “As extreme weather events grow more often, traditional agriculture will soon experience greater instability worldwide. Galy will be prepared, strengthening our economy’s resistance to these shocks, he declared.
Galy’s breakthrough is the cultivation of cotton plant cells in bioreactors, which mimic the optimal growing environment and yield cotton with a quality comparable to traditional cotton. The textile sector now has a more sustainable choice thanks to the processing of the lab-grown material into yarns, textiles, and finished goods.Galy hopes to add more plant-cell products to its cellular agriculture platform as a result of this achievement.
Óscar García Maceiras, the CEO of Inditex, emphasized the company’s investment in Galy as a component of its plan to lessen the environmental effect of cotton manufacturing. He stated, “Galy’s technology marks a significant step in advancing an innovative and more responsible textile industry.”
Another significant investor, H&M Group, believes that Galy’s lab-grown cotton is essential to lowering its dependency on virgin cotton, which now accounts for 60% of its supplied materials. The head of H&M’s Circular Innovation Lab, Martin Ekenbark, expressed enthusiasm at Galy’s possible discovery and reaffirmed the company’s pledge to use sustainable materials by 2030.
