The Swedish company Retein that has developed a patented technology for water separation today announced the successful closing of their latest financing round. The company is being backed by Industrifonden, Butterfly Ventures, Navigare Ventures, and existing owner Chalmers Ventures. The new financing will bring their technology one step closer to industry and people in need.
Retein, until recently named Aquammodate, was founded in 2019 and has developed a patented technology for energy-efficient and high purity water separation. The technology has the potential to reduce the cost for recovering clean water and have lower impact on the environment than traditional methods. The new investment will be used to increase the production of stabilized aquaporins and finalize the development of a filtration module with embedded aquaporins.
Simon Isaksson, co-founder and CEO at Retein, said: “We are excited to welcome Industrifonden, Butterfly Ventures, and Navigare Ventures on board our journey towards enabling sustainable reuse of resources such as clean water. Their extensive experience in scaling and advancing deep tech solutions adds additional strength on our path to realize the transformational potential of our solution”.
The patented molecular separation technology was initially developed over the course of Simon Isaksson’s PhD project under the supervision of Retein co-founder professor Martin Andersson, at Chalmers University of Technology. The foundation of the technology is a biomimetic approach to water separation, as the company has taken inspiration by how aquaporins function in diatoms. The proprietary silica stabilization allows the aquaporins to be used as an additive to various kinds of filters on a wide range of scales.
Iliam Barkino, Principal at Industrifonden, said: “We’re proud to back the team at Retein and their unique technology based on impressive science from Chalmers University of Technology. They are truly unique in the way they have been able to stabilize aquaporins in a similar way that algae do, and we believe in the team that has a mix of highly qualified technological expertise and entrepreneurial experience.”
