Eosix surfactants enhance stain removal, demonstrate 500x higher stability in hard water and are 100 percent free of 1,4 dioxane a potential carcinogenic contaminant facing restrictions
Sironix Renewables, a Seattle based company developing non-toxic, sustainably-sourced ingredients for the cleaning products and personal care industries, announced the close of an over-subscribed seed funding round. The round of $645,000 included funding from the University of Minnesota Discovery Capital Investment program and from angel investors. Additionally, it also announced that it has been awarded a $1.15 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office.
Sironix will use this new funding to scale production at its Seattle facility of its Eosix technology that delivers enhanced performance, reduces petroleum use and solves for regulatory and possible health concerns faced by traditional surfactant ingredients.
The company’s plant-based products replace petroleum-based ingredients in shampoos, detergents and cleaners and have additional applications ranging from personal care and cosmetics to agriculture, paints, inks and other coatings. The products also offer a safe option for avoiding the likely carcinogenic contaminant called 1,4-dioxane found in some cleaners and personal care products that has faced recent regulatory restrictions in New York and California. Sironix surfactants not only deliver improved performance over the affected ingredients but are also 100 percent free from 1,4-dioxane.
“Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainability and safety from the products they purchase, but don’t want to sacrifice on performance or pay a premium. Our Eosix technology checks the box on all of these requirements,” said Christoph Krumm, CEO and co-founder. “The continued support of our funding sources, including the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Energy, is a testament to the incredible work that the Sironix team and its many partners have accomplished over the past four years as well as the confidence they have in our teams’ ability to achieve our vision.”
Eosix benefits include enhanced stain removal and perform exponentially better in hard water conditions, which comprise roughly 85 percent of the U.S. and are commonly known to decrease performance of current products. The hard water stability of Eosix renewable surfactants significantly outperforms market-leading surfactants, providing cost savings across all applications as well as access to niche market areas where other surfactants cannot function.
Sironix uses a chemical process to combine starch-based ingredients with natural oils to produce high-performance anionic surfactants. The resulting platform of oleo-furan renewable surfactants are 100 percent plant based and provide unique and tunable performance properties that are desirable in a variety of fields, such as cleaning products, personal care and cosmetics, agriculture, and inks, paints and other coatings.
“Sironix is a great company that reflects the University of Minnesota’s leadership in green chemistry and successful startups based on faculty inventions,” said Russ Straate, associate director at the Venture Center at the University of Minnesota, which operates the Discovery Capital Investment program. “It’s been exciting to watch, advise and support the Sironix team as they have taken this technology from invention in 2016 to their recent joint development agreement and a new phase of progress with scaling and partnerships.”
Sironix was spun-out of the University of Minnesota and has received more than $6.4 million in grants and equity funding since its formation in 2016.
