SeaDyes Secures £200,000 to Scale Seaweed-Based Textile Dyes in Scotland

SeaDyes, a Scottish startup developing fabric dyes from seaweed, secured £200,000 in funding after entering the Company Creation phase of Scottish Enterprise's High Growth Spinout Programme. The move marks the most significant institutional validation yet for a company trying to do something the dye industry has never managed at scale: replace petroleum-based synthetic colour with something pulled from the sea.

The announcement, made on 14 March 2026, marks a step up from the startup's earlier £75,000 award from the same programme, which it received when it first joined The James Hutton Institute as a spin-in company at the start of 2025. The £200,000 comes from Scottish Enterprise via its High Growth Spinout Programme specifically at the Company Creation phase, which is designed to help spinout companies move from research to a commercially structured business ready for external investment.

Marine scientist and biotech innovator Jessica Giannotti founded the company in July 2023, and the startup later joined the James Hutton Institute at the beginning of 2025 as a spin-in. Giannotti originally developed the concept through the Scottish Association for Marine Science before spinning it out as a dedicated company. Since early 2025, SeaDyes has been based at The James Hutton Institute's Invergowrie campus in Scotland, where it has access to specialist equipment, workspaces, and commercial support through Hutton Scientific Services.

The progress during that residency has been substantive. With the support of Scottish Enterprise and the Hutton, SeaDyes has been able to develop viable prototype dyes and engage with over 100 potential customers. The startup has also established multi-year research, development, and commercial partnerships with leading industry players, as well as adding two new members to the team: Isla Fowler, a fashion and textile design master's graduate from Heriot-Watt University, appointed as Textile Innovation Technician, and Ian Laird, appointed as the firm's Commercial Champion. Laird brings more than 30 years of experience leading and growing businesses across industries including textiles, with work spanning investment securing, licensing complex industrial processes, and driving product and commercial innovation through partnerships.

The urgency behind SeaDyes' mission is written into the industry's own data. The natural dyes provide a sustainable, non-toxic alternative to petroleum-based dyes, which contribute 280,000 tonnes of pollution into the environment each year, while textile dyeing and finishing worldwide is responsible for 20% of industrial wastewater pollution and around 3% of global CO₂ emissions, projected to rise to 10% by 2050. For a sector that runs on colour, the chemistry underpinning that colour has remained largely unchanged for over a century.

Hutton CEO Professor Colin Campbell offered pointed endorsement of what SeaDyes is attempting. "SeaDyes is a very exciting prospect and an inspiring nature-based approach that aims to solve a historically difficult and intractable problem for the dye industry," he said. "We are delighted they are at The James Hutton Institute and tapping into our expertise in natural products."

Leah Pape, Head of High Growth Services at Scottish Enterprise, called the funding "a pivotal step for SeaDyes, providing the capital and structured support needed to accelerate the journey to spinout," adding that it would enable the team to build a robust commercial proposition, position the business for investment, and establish SeaDyes as a high-growth company capable of driving more sustainable practices across the textile industry while strengthening Scotland's industrial biotechnology ecosystem.

Giannotti noted that the company had been built "with care, integrity, and momentum, supported by an extraordinary team, advisors, mentors and collaborators who have believed in the journey as much as we have."

SeaDyes is continuing to develop its proprietary seaweed-derived dye technology at the Invergowrie campus while building out its commercial proposition ahead of a full spinout, and the company is open to new investment partners at this stage. For a startup whose entire premise rests on the ocean as a colour source, the trajectory from marine science concept to commercial dye alternative is now, for the first time, measured not in years of research but in rounds of investment.