Imperial's Puraffinity raises £17M and prepares to scale up water treatment technology

With new investment and a new chief executive, Imperial startup Puraffinity is ready to take its PFAS removal system to the market.

Imperial startup Puraffinity, which is developing technologies to remove persistent toxic chemicals from water, has raised an additional investment of £6.73 million. This increases its Series A funding round, begun last year, to a total of £16.93 million, resources it will use to scale up production and develop fresh commercial applications for its patented materials. 

The company has also appointed water industry veteran Vincent Caillaud as its new chief executive. “The dynamic and pioneering spirit at Puraffinity is inspiring,” Mr Caillaud said, “and I can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together in tackling one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time.”

The company was formed in 2015 by Henrik Hagemann and Gabi Santosa, at the time both Master’s students in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial. Inspired by their studies, and participation in a competition for new ideas in synthetic biology, they set out to develop materials that would help remove harmful chemicals from water.

Top of their list were perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which have since become notorious as ‘forever chemicals’. These toxic substances persist in the environment for many years, and have been have been linked to multiple health issues, including cancer. 

Ready to scale up

The founders took part in several Imperial Entrepreneurship programmes, including the Venture Catalyst Challenge and WE Innovate, and the company was among the first residents of the White City Incubator. Later Puraffinity participated in Undaunted’s climate accelerator programme, now known as The Greenhouse. Based since then at Imperial’s White City deep-tech campus, the company has developed and demonstrated its PFAS removal technology, passing several significant landmarks. Developments this year have proved decisive.

“In the first half of 2024, we successfully shipped our first sales and conducted several lab and pilot projects throughout the year, all of which validated our proof of concept, providing us with the traction to scale further,” says Mr Caillaud. “This has enabled us to progress commercial discussions with key customers with long-term agreements in the pipeline.”

The funding raised in the Series A round will enable Puraffinity to scale-up its manufacturing capabilities, so that production of its PFAS-capturing material can meet demand. This is growing as government policies on PFAS become stronger and regulations get closer to implementation.

Leading areas of demand include treatment of drinking water and environmental remediation, in particular where groundwater has been contaminated with PFAS in fire-fighting foam. There is also increasing interest from industries looking for ways to pre-empt regulations by treating PFAS at source.

Under new management

The next phase of the company’s development will be overseen by a new management structure that sees Vincent Caillaud take over as chief executive from Henrik Hagemann. Mr Caillaud has more than 20 years’ experience working in the water sector, most recently as chief executive of global company Veolia Water Technologies and Solutions.

Meanwhile Mr Hagemann will become Puraffinity’s Chief Product and Innovation Officer. “The new management structure will allow me to focus on accelerating our existing technologies and developing new product roadmaps, confident that Puraffinity’s business development is assured with Vincent as CEO,” he explained. 

Connections with Imperial and the White City Innovation District remain crucial to the company. “We've expanded our lab facilities at Scale Space, which has enhanced our scaling capabilities and provided us with greater capacity to test our product,” says Mr Caillaud. “Being based in the heart of London's life sciences and tech cluster positions us to grow rapidly and efficiently. By leveraging these resources and Imperial's support, we can continue to scale up our operations, accelerating our market entry.”

Initial investors in Puraffinity’s Series A round included Octopus Ventures, HG Ventures, Kindred Capital, and Verve Ventures, along with specialist materials science fund Universal Materials Incubator Co. The final £6.73 million announced this month comes from BGF.

“Puraffinity is well-positioned to fulfil its vision of bringing PFAS-safe water to one billion people by 2030,” said Luke Rajah, an investor at BGF. “We are thrilled to work with Puraffinity as it enters a new phase of rapid, global growth, taking a meaningful step towards enhancing water safety.”

This article was first published on 25 September by Imperial College London.