SeaDyes, a company that makes sustainable fabric dyes from seaweed, has secured £75,000 (USD$94,000) of funding from Scottish Enterprise and joined Scottish scientific research organization James Hutton Institute, an interdisciplinary scientific research institute for the sustainable management of land, crop and nature resources.
Founded in 2023 by marine scientist and biotech innovator Jessica Giannotti, the company aims to revolutionize the fashion and textiles industry by producing natural dyes sourced from seaweed. The biobased colorants provide a sustainable, non-toxic alternative to petroleum-based synthetic dyes, which currently leak into the environment at a rate of 140,000 tons per year.
The company plans to use the funds to help accelerate research and commercialization efforts.
In 2024, the company said, textile dyeing and finishing accounted for 3% of global CO2 emissions, and projections suggest that figure could rise to 10% by 2050. The industry is also the second largest contributor to global industrial wastewater pollution, impacting entire ecosystems and millions of people. Textile dyes can be toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic agents and can persist as pollutants.
“SeaDyes started as a project of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) and my first company Crùbag, and it became a new exciting startup,” said Giannotti. “The urgent need for alternatives and our unique position at the intersection of marine science, sustainable aquaculture and the fashion industry inspired us to explore sustainable material solutions from the ocean. Nature-based solutions like SeaDyes can support the detoxification of the fashion and textile industries and reduce their dependency on fossil fuels. In exchange, the fashion and textile industries can drive science-led innovation, blue growth and job creation.”
She said that being a “spin-in” at the institute will allow the company to treat seaweed as a crop and dyes as a natural product, and have the capacity, skills and space to refine the company’s technology, develop a market-fit product and scale.
Samples of SeaDyes
