Keio’s synthetic silk producer increased its valuation to over $1.2bn in a round led by Carlyle Japan Partners.
Spiber, a Japan-based synthetic biomaterial developer spun out of Keio University, raked in ¥34.4bn ($312m) in funding led by private equity firm Carlyle’s fund Carlyle Japan Partners yesterday.
Fidelity, Cool Japan Fund and Baillie Gifford also participated. The round valued the spinout at more than $1.2bn post-money.
Founded in 2007, Spiber produces synthetic silk and other materials using synthetic proteins with no need for the spiders and silkworms usually required.
The company is looking to capitalise on a growing market for sustainable textiles and will put the proceeds of the round into accelerating its expansion and commercialisation plans.
The round follows several injections of corporate cash over the past few years, the most recent of which was involved food processor and commodities trader ADM in October 2020 with an investment of undisclosed size, building on a similarly undisclosed amount in December 2019.
Textile trading…
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
