Loliware Raises $15.4 Million in Pre-Series A Funding

February 14, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – With $6 million raised in its latest round of pre-series A funding, Loliware has raised a total of $15.4 million – making it the market’s best-funded seaweed materials tech company. Company officials said they will use the funds to focus on continued growth in the seaweed materials market, launch several new products and novel seaweed resins, and expand the company’s research and development capabilities.

This most recent round of funders includes investors L Catterton, CityRock Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Geekdom Fund, Ehukai Investments, 5 Pillars Capital, Kilara Capital founder and managing director Ben Krasnostein, Clay Rockefeller, Kiss the Ground co-founder Ryland Engelhart, Nutiva founder and former CEO John Roulac, Blue Bottle Coffee founder Bryan Meehan, and others. U.S.-based plastics manufacturer Sinclair and Rush has committed capital as well.

“Climate change is a worldwide problem, and our pelletized seaweed resins are a step toward a solution,” said Loliware founder and CEO Sea F. Briganti. “By reducing CO2 emissions and strengthening the ocean-based ‘blue economy,’ our seaweed-derived products make it clear that regenerating the Earth is good business.”

Founded in 2016, Loliware is at the forefront of tech companies focusing on regenerative materials that support a stronger ecosystem. “Demand for seaweed-based products promotes the creation of seaweed-farming operations in coastal communities worldwide,” Briganti added.“This not only creates jobs where they are needed most but these undersea forests filter and oxygenate oceans while capturing carbon.”

Loliware’s seaweed-derived resins are fully compatible with existing manufacturing plastic extruding equipment, providing a unique, cost-effective way to replace single-use plastics at scale. The seaweed can be processed into Loliware’s materials at local facilities and made into a wide array of products which compost easily and enrich the soil.

"We are so excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for Loliware,” said Whitney Casey, Venture Partner at L Catterton. “The potential for their patented SEA Technology to disrupt the broader materials market is huge. Straws are just the beginning for Sea and her team.”

“What Loliware has created is revolutionary and is on the cusp of a paradigm shift in plastics,” said Alumni Ventures’ managing partner Cainon Coates. “By removing adoption and scale barriers, plastic manufacturers can simply swap plastic pellets for their seaweed pellets. The impact and upside potential are massive.”

About LOLIWARE

Loliware is an award-winning materials tech company focused on replacing single-use plastics with seaweed-derived alternatives that are Designed to Disappear®. As the first company worldwide to truly scale seaweed as a viable replacement for plastic, Loliware's innovative “SEA (Seaweed-derived, Emission-avoiding, Alternatives to plastic) Technology® represents a new category of sustainable, regenerative resins derived from seaweed – a bio-renewable and carbon capturing input. The first product launch in the category is the Loliware drinking straw. SEATechnology® resins are currently being applied to single-use items, such as straws, cups, utensils and films to advance our planet toward a plastic-free, decarbonized future.

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