The specialty chemicals sector sits at the center of the global decarbonization challenge. Demand for advanced materials, additives, and functional ingredients continues to rise, yet most of these products still depend on petroleum-based hydrocarbons as both feedstock and energy input. This dual reliance makes specialty chemical manufacturing one of the hardest industrial sectors to decarbonize.
The industry must break its dependency on fossil-derived inputs if it hopes to achieve meaningful emissions reductions. Transitioning to renewable, circular, and bio-based feedstocks is emerging as a critical pathway. These feedstocks can replace hydrocarbon-intensive raw materials, reduce lifecycle emissions, and mitigate the need for new fossil resources as demand grows.
A new generation of startups is accelerating this shift. By leveraging biotechnology, advanced material discovery, and AI, they are developing products and ingredients that either replace petrochemical-derived counterparts or eliminate the need for them altogether. Their innovations push the boundaries of what specialty chemicals can deliver without relying on fossil fuels.
This article highlights startups creating low-carbon alternatives and next-generation specialty chemicals that can decouple the industry’s growth from hydrocarbon use and help position the sector for a more sustainable future.
Oceanium (UK)Â
Oceanium, founded in 2018 by Karen Scofield Seal and Dr. Charlie Bavington, is building a sustainable seaweed value chain to accelerate the transition toward low-impact specialty chemicals. The company develops functional seaweed-based ingredients for food, health, and materials, positioning seaweed as an alternative feedstock that reduces pressure on land resources and cuts emissions associated with conventional chemical production.
Oceanium purchases sustainably farmed seaweed from growers across the UK and processes the biomass using proprietary green chemistry and biorefinery technologies. This enables the extraction of high-value bioactives for skincare and gut health, nutrient-rich superfood ingredients, and biodegradable materials. These products replace resource-intensive inputs used in food systems and specialty chemical supply chains, many of which contribute to deforestation, high carbon footprints, and persistent waste streams.
One of its most notable innovations is OCEAN INK®, the world’s first fully biodegradable, water-based ink made entirely from sustainably farmed seaweed. Currently in development, OCEAN INK® aims to replace harmful solvent-based inks commonly used in luxury textiles, printing, and packaging. The material offers a unique, eco-friendly alternative for brands seeking sustainable solutions without compromising performance.
Oceanium raised $11 million in Series A funding in January 2025 to scale production and expand applications for its seaweed-based solutions.
BIOWEG (Germany)
BIOWEG, founded in Germany in 2019, is a purpose-driven company developing sustainable, bio-based, high-performance ingredients. Its mission is to replace environmentally harmful materials with biodegradable alternatives that maintain or exceed industry performance standards. The company integrates biotechnology, material science, and molecular simulation to design advanced ingredients across cosmetics, personal care, nutraceuticals, agriculture, and food.
BIOWEG leverages sidestream resources and green chemistry principles to create circular processes that reduce waste. This approach enables the production of bio-based solutions that address microplastic pollution and synthetic polymer dependency.
The company’s MicBead® and RheoWeg® products serve as biodegradable substitutes for microplastics like polymethylmethacrylate and nylon in personal care formulations.
In agriculture, BIOWEG’s AgriWeg® replaces petroleum-based coatings used on fertilizers and seeds. AgriWeg® coatings are bio-based and readily biodegradable within one year. They offer tunable release profiles and low dust formation, making them suitable for large-scale sustainable farming. The solution mitigates groundwater contamination and microplastic buildup caused by conventional polymer coatings.
The company secured $18.77 million in Series A funding in September 2025.
Coreshell (USA)
California-based Coreshell develops nanolayer coating technology that enhances lithium-ion battery performance and durability. The company’s technology allows lithium ions to move freely through electrodes without triggering side reactions that degrade capacity. This approach prevents performance decline, reduces costs, and requires minimal changes to existing battery manufacturing processes.
Coreshell addresses key barriers facing the electric vehicle industry. Automakers need longer range, lower battery costs, and more resilient supply chains. A major challenge is heavy reliance on foreign graphite production, which limits domestic control and increases risk. Coreshell replaces graphite with metallurgical silicon sourced from the United States, strengthening supply chain security and improving sustainability.
This innovation adds more than 30 percent additional range while reducing costs by up to 25 percent. Coreshell’s batteries offer higher capacity, faster charging, and lower lifecycle emissions. The technology integrates with existing lithium-ion production lines, making it scalable for electric vehicles and energy storage.Â
Coreshell secured $24 million in Series A round in March 2025 to scale production of its 60 Ah battery cells made with 100 percent domestically sourced metallurgical silicon.
CuspAI (UK)
CuspAI develops software that accelerates the discovery and design of new materials using artificial intelligence. The company leverages generative AI, deep learning, and molecular simulation to create and evaluate materials based on user-defined properties. Its platform functions like a search engine for materials, enabling users to request specific characteristics and generate candidate materials on demand.
This approach transforms conventional material development, which often takes years of experimentation. CuspAI’s system shortens timelines by rapidly predicting how molecules behave and identifying viable compounds for real-world applications. The technology supports diverse sectors, including energy storage, purification, carbon capture, and advanced manufacturing.
A key focus area is the design of molecular sponges that selectively absorb carbon dioxide. Direct air capture requires materials that can remove and store CO₂ efficiently, and CuspAI is applying AI-driven discovery to this challenge. These molecular sponges can absorb carbon dioxide like a physical sponge and sequester it within the material. The company’s platform also enables the development of novel specialty chemicals engineered for direct air capture, providing tailored performance characteristics that accelerate CO₂ removal.
CuspAI has secured $100 million in Series A funding to advance its AI foundation models and strengthen its position as a leader in AI-based material innovation.
Amphistar (Belgium)
AmphiStar develops and produces eco-friendly biosurfactants made entirely from upcycled waste materials. Founded in 2021, the company builds on more than 15 years of research at the University of Ghent and the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant. Its mission is to create high-performance alternatives to conventional surfactants that rely on fossil fuels, palm oil, or sugar as feedstock.
The company uses patented biotechnology to convert diverse biomass into microbial biosurfactants. These ingredients are biodegradable and non-toxic. AmphiStar sources all feedstocks from renewable side streams, ensuring no direct link to land use change or deforestation. Its platform integrates synthetic biology, microbial fermentation, and mild processing techniques to produce glycolipid biosurfactants tailored to specific market needs.
AmphiStar’s fermentation process uses a highly productive yeast organism originally found in bumblebee honey. This enables the conversion of both first-generation feedstocks like glucose and fatty acids and second-generation inputs such as crude glycerine and food waste. The company offers the first commercially available biosurfactants derived entirely from biobased waste streams.
These biosurfactants serve applications across personal care, home care, textiles, industrial cleaners, agrochemicals, and cosmetics. By replacing traditional petrochemical surfactants, AmphiStar supports a circular chemical economy and reduces environmental impact. The company raised $11.7 million to scale production and bring its products to market.
The path forward for low-carbon specialty chemicals
The startups discussed above are some of the many reshaping the specialty chemicals sector by reducing its dependence on fossil-based feedstocks. Their approaches showcase that alternative pathways are emerging and slowly replacing conventional petrochemical processes.
These innovations provide a credible route to lower-carbon formulations without exacerbating land use pressure or deforestation. As customers, regulators, and value-chain partners demand measurable reductions in emissions, these alternative feedstock strategies are becoming commercially relevant rather than experimental.
The pace of transition remains uneven, but continued investment and scientific breakthroughs will determine how quickly these solutions can scale. Together, these developments can reduce reliance on fossil fuel resources and lower COâ‚‚ emissions. They also help the sector address key barriers to specialty chemicals decarbonization.
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