Solena Materials raises €1.4 million to scale biodegradable protein fibres

Solena Materials has picked up another €1.4 million to do the part that usually breaks next-gen materials: get from promising lab samples to something a mill can actually run. The money, announced on 27 May 2026, is tied to Solena’s partnership with Netherlands-based fermentation specialist The Protein Express and will fund the joint Exprest project, which is aimed at industrial-scale production of the company’s biodegradable protein fibres.

That is the real test here. Solena is pitching a fibre made for performance and premium apparel, not just for concept-store theater. The company says the material is fermented protein, designed with AI at the molecular level and produced using engineered microbes. It also says the fibres are biodegradable and meant to offer a plastic-free alternative to the fossil-fuel-derived materials that still dominate most clothing. In other words, this is a story about whether a cleaner input can survive the brutal math of fabrication, consistency and cost.

Solena has been building toward this moment for a while. The company spun out of Imperial College London in 2022, founded by Dr James MacDonald, Prof. Paul Freemont and Prof. Milo Shaffer. In May 2025, it raised a $6.7 million seed round backed by Sir David Harding, SynBioVen and Insempra, after a $4.1 million pre-seed round in 2022. Solena said then that its first product should reach market with a partner brand within three years, and its website now says it is relocating to scale production ahead of a 2028 product launch.

That timeline matters more than the funding headline. Protein fibres have to prove they can hold their own against the incumbents that rule modern wardrobes: polyester for cheap durability, nylon for stretch and abrasion resistance, wool and silk for touch and prestige. If Solena wants a real foothold, the opening looks more like technical outerwear, performance knits and luxury capsules than mass-market basics. Those categories can stomach a higher material cost if the hand-feel, drape and performance are there.

Solena’s own recent grant-backed work suggests the company understands that the bottleneck is process, not just chemistry. It cited projects in March 2024 with UK Research and Innovation and CPI, and in December 2024 with the National Physical Laboratory, both focused on more cost-effective ways to produce protein-based materials. The new €1.4 million round is a smaller cheque than the 2025 seed raise, but it is the more revealing one: the biotech fantasy is over, and the industrial grind has started.