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Investments

Investing in Tattva—bioengineered construction materials for carbon removal

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Investments

Investing in Tattva—bioengineered construction materials for carbon removal

Words Founders Factory

October 21st 2024 / 3 min read

We’re excited to announce our latest G-Force investment—Tattva.

The problem

The world will need to construct 2.5 billion new buildings in the next 20 years to meet current rates of population migration, on top of around 12 million houses every year to rebuild the ones we are losing due to war and natural disasters.

And yet, the building industry is currently the largest carbon-emitting industry today, contributing 36% of global carbon emissions. The extraction, transport, and manufacturing of raw materials (steel, cements etc.) into building materials require a high amount of energy—most of which is generated by fossil fuels.

To navigate the existential risks of the climate crisis, there is an urgent need to upgrade our construction technology for our collective future.

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The solution

Tattva is developing a new bioengineered system of construction that is fundamentally based on the biological process of photosynthesis. The system aims to fulfil and outperform current standards of building construction, while simultaneously sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In sum—they’re transforming construction from the largest carbon-emitting activity into the largest carbon-sequestering one.

How are they doing this?

Their patented photosynthetic bioprocess engineering technology enables them to harness the evolutionary properties of ancient cyanobacteria species in a scalable and economically efficient manner. This technology allows them to grow living photosynthetic tissues that are lightweight, load-bearing, insulating, and translucent, an exciting first step towards creating a biologically grown built environment.

The team

Prantar Tamuli (Founder & Director of Technology)

Prantar combines academic and professional experience of bioengineering and architecture, and is the inventor of Tattva’s solid-state cyanobacteria bioprocess engineering technology. He is a PhD scholar at the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering at UCL, as well as a qualified Architect.

Dr. Steven Roberts (Co-Founder & Director of Administration)

Steven brings considerable operational and leadership experience. He spent several years as COO at Barclays, as well holding several roles including Head of Culture, Chief Scientific Advisor, and Founder of Barclays Eagle Labs. He also has a PhD in Geophysics from Cambridge University.

Andrew Gray (Co-Founder & Director of Operations)

Andrew has more than 25 years of experience in engineering, operating, and optimising large scale regenerative farming-based processes and practices, with experience as one of the largest employers in the South West region of UK. He is chairman of the Devon County Agriculture Association and Trustee of The West County Rivers Association.

Why we’re excited to invest

Louis Warner, partner at G-Force, says: “In Tattva, not only did we find a bio-engineered super-material that absorbs carbon whilst it grows, and whose properties exceed some of the most commonly used building materials today, we also met a superbly talented founder in Prantar Tamuli, an architect turned bio-chemical PhD researcher, who has gone on to build a stellar team and is now leading a company that we believe will one day grow buildings, carbon negatively! We are thrilled to be part of the journey with the Tattva team and help them scale their business.”

What Tattva is looking to get out of the programme

Access to and support of the G-Force network and their experience of helping tech-based startups grow sustainably
Help us grow from pre-seed to seed and beyond (commercially, financially and organisationally)
Be on hand to offer advice and insight as we navigate our growth