Genecis, founded by scientist Luna Yu, is an investment by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, part of Amazon’s commitment to supporting women climate tech entrepreneurs. As an alternative to conventional plastic packaging, Genecis uses organic waste, such as table food scraps, to create a biodegradable bioplastic.
A recently launched Female Founder Initiative at the Climate Pledge Fund, which invests in climate technology companies that develop innovative climate technology solutions to address global warming, aims to invest $50 million in women-founded and women-led climate technology companies. Additionally, the program is designed to address the gender equity funding gap for women entrepreneurs in climate technology by investing in incubators and accelerators that support women entrepreneurs. The number of venture capital funds available to women founders and their companies is often small — less than 3%, according to Pitchbook.
As the first woman CEO to receive investment support through the Female Founder Initiative, Yu founded Genecis at a young age of 21. In addition, Genecis represents the fund’s first investment in a company that actively addresses the global warming factor posed by fossil fuel-derived plastics. During her studies to become an environmental scientist, Yu developed the idea for Genecis, and her decision to work in climate technology has been further influenced by other women who have excelled in their respective fields. According to Phoebe Wang, an investment partner and the head of Amazon’s Female Founder Initiative, she believes Amazon’s program will signal to women that they can access funding to support their ventures.
As a result of the use of petroleum in traditional plastics, they are a major source of pollution. The American Chemical Society estimates that approximately 400 million tons of plastic are produced every year with fossil fuels, but less than ten percent of these plastics are recycled and over fifty percent end up in landfills. By replacing plastic products with fully biodegradable alternatives, Genecis’ innovations with bioplastics can be used to assist in addressing this challenge. Using specialized bacteria, Yu and her team are creating bioplastics from organic waste, such as bread crusts and other food scraps, at Genecis. Currently, traditional plastics are used to manufacture a wide variety of products and packaging, such as food packaging, clothing, textiles, medical equipment and supplies. As part of Genecis’ ongoing efforts to bring bioplastics to market and design products for their use, several corporate partners are working with Genecis. A potential future use of Genecis’ bioplastics by Amazon will involve offering grocery and pharmacy items in bioplastic packaging that is recyclable and biodegradable.
There is an industry-wide challenge associated with plastic packaging, and Amazon is taking multiple initiatives to reduce its packaging and to increase recyclability. Over the past year, Amazon has invested in technologies and materials that have helped reduce the weight of packaging per shipment by 38% and eliminate the use of more than 1.5 million metric tons of packaging materials, as well as working with the Department of Energy’s BOTTLE consortium.
Alexis Boutilier is from Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a high interest in all things tech and loves to stay engaged on all the latest appliances and accessories.