Montreal, QC – February 25, 2025 – Dispersa, a leading Canadian cleantech startup turning food waste into sustainable chemical ingredients, announces the successful close of $5.8 million CAD in seed funding. The round was led by Nàdarra Ventures and backed by a consortium of all-Canadian investors, including new investors BDC Thrive Lab, Cycle Momentum, The51 Food & AgTech Fund and Fonds d’investissement Eurêka, through Hidden Layers Capital. This round also saw significa participation from existing investors, including Good & Well, Dragonfly Ventures, BoxOne Venture and Front Row Ventures demonstrating their continued belief in Dispersa’s growth trajectory.
“At Cycle Momentum, we believe in the power of technology to drive sustainable industrial transformation. Dispersa’s innovative approach – upcycling waste into biosurfactants – is a key step toward reducing reliance on petroleum products in household chemicals. We are proud to support their next stage of growth and to help accelerate technology that addresses both environmental and industrial challenges.” Jennifer McDonald, Vice-Présidente principale des investissements chez Cycle Momentum.
Surfactants are the active ingredients in many everyday products like surface cleaners, laundry detergents, shampoos, and cosmetics, representing the most versatile ingredient in the chemical industry. With over 90 per cent of surfactants currently derived from palm or petroleum, demand is surging for greener alternatives.
Dispersa’s proprietary technology, BioEternaTM, combines synthetic biology and precision fermentation to create 100 per cent waste-derived, affordable, and high-performing surfactants. Using waste oils and sugars, BioEternaTM unlocks significant costreduction while boosting surfacta sustainability. Using this process, Dispersa has developed its flagship ingredient, PuraSurf MTM: t world’s first fully waste-derived biosurfactan
This injection of capital will accelerate Dispersa’s ability to commercially scale the production of PuraSurf MTM to service some of the largest multinational companies in the North American household, industrial, and institutional (HI&I) sector.
“We are thrilled to welcome new investors and additional capital at a significant inflection point in Dispersa’s journey to make waste-derived biosurfactants mainstream and accessible. With mounting pressure to shift away from conventional surfactants due to regulatory and consumer demands, we are looking forward to making our sustainable alternatives available today to supply this vital market need.” Nivatha Balendra, founder and CEO of Dispersa.
About Cycle Momentum
Cycle Momentum is an international acceleration and innovation platform whose mission since 2015 has been to identify and support the development of cutting-edge technologies to address humanity’s major ecological challenges. As a member of the Cycle Capital platform, Cycle Momentum offers acceleration and open innovation programs to support entrepreneurial growth, financing, and commercialization of climate technologies. We establish the necessary collaborations between industrial leaders and start-ups to accelerate the commercialization of their solutions. Cycle Momentum invests through Origo, an investment matching program supported by the Government of Quebec.
About Dispersa
Dispersa is a Canadian CleanTech start-up that is transforming food waste to produce affordable and sustainable biosurfactants in an effort to reduce our dependence on fossil-fuel and palm-derived chemicals. Launched in 2019, we are the world’s first company to scale waste-derived biosurfactants and establish biosurfactant manufacturing capacity in Canada, strengthening the local supply of sustainable ingredients.
