Talk about leftovers. Yu is using bacteria to transform the carbons found in food waste into earth-friendly plastics. Her Toronto-based Genecis Bioindustries has raised $17 million from Amazon and Khosla Ventures to turn biowaste into products including single-use utensils, clothing, packaging and medical tools. Unlike petroleum-based plastics, Genecis’ versions are made from a naturally occurring polymer and are biodegradable without creating microplastics. “I think the key is to offer something no other product can offer,” Yu says. The company generated $5 million in revenue last year. Her next step: launching a line of plastic products in the food-and- beverage space and sell them directly to consumers.
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TechTranscript
00:00 (gentle music)
00:03 - Luna, thank you so much for being here with me.
00:04 - Thank you for having me.
00:06 - Of course, so let's start by talking about
00:07 what exactly does your company do?
00:10 - So at Genesis Bio, we take organic waste,
00:12 all kinds of forms, food waste or industrial waste,
00:15 and we convert that into compostable plastics.
00:18 - Very cool, how did you get the idea for this?
00:20 - So back during my master's program
00:22 in University of Toronto,
00:24 I had a chance to visit a biogas facility
00:26 where they convert food waste into biogas.
00:29 And then very quickly I realized that
00:31 throughout the entire process,
00:32 there's these really great carbons
00:34 that you can get from food waste
00:35 that can also be fed to much more efficient bacteria
00:38 to make higher value products instead.
00:40 - A lot of companies today,
00:43 and especially a lot of startups,
00:44 are looking at ESG and looking at the climate crisis
00:48 and doing things, I think, to kind of just tick a box
00:50 and say, okay, we're helping the environment.
00:53 Is there a personal mission that you're motivated by?
00:56 - For me personally, I actually grew up in China
00:58 in one of the most polluted cities.
01:00 So growing up I saw a bunch of pollution, smog everywhere,
01:03 so I thought we need to be able to do something
01:05 to really help alleviate that.
01:07 - And how are you working to do that now?
01:09 - Well, so with our technology,
01:11 we basically take organic waste feedstocks
01:14 that would otherwise go into the landfills.
01:16 And in the landfills, they actually release
01:17 roughly 7% of greenhouse gas emissions as they degrade.
01:21 And so by essentially diverting that stream
01:23 away from landfills and converting that
01:25 into compostable plastics,
01:26 we can essentially offset a huge amount of carbon emissions.
01:29 (upbeat music)
01:32 - Who are your customers?
01:34 Tell me a little bit about who you're making this for.
01:37 - Absolutely, so traditionally,
01:38 our customers has been B2B customers.
01:41 So large CPG brands like Noble Nordisk and Unilever.
01:44 But this year we're actually planning to launch
01:46 our own products directly to consumers.
01:48 So it'll be really exciting to see that.
01:50 - What type of products?
01:51 - In the food and beverage space,
01:52 as well as in the cosmetic space with PHAs.
01:56 - I wanna get a sense of the scale of your company.
01:58 Can you talk to me a bit about either customers or sales
02:01 or anything like that that'll help me understand?
02:03 - Absolutely, so this year we have roughly
02:05 around $5 million in revenues,
02:08 plus around $10 million in purchase orders
02:10 and additional deals that we have signed.
02:12 In terms of the impact that we can have,
02:15 we really do think that next year
02:16 is gonna be a big year for us
02:17 because beyond just the B2B sales,
02:19 we will be launching those products direct to consumers.
02:22 And that's where we do believe that we can do
02:23 a lot more better job in terms of marketing it
02:26 and bringing about a new type of plastic to the world.
02:28 - So talk to me about your fundraising journey.
02:34 How'd you get to where you are today?
02:36 - I think we're really lucky to have
02:37 a lot of great investors backing us.
02:39 So for example, Series A we raised last year
02:41 with Kozol Ventures leading the round.
02:43 And then earlier this year we had Amazon Pledge Fund
02:47 co-lead our Series A extension.
02:49 And we're also backed by Y Combinator.
02:51 So just really, really great to be connected
02:53 with all these amazing people.
02:55 - What's your total funding right now?
02:58 - We have raised roughly $17 million to date.
03:01 And then we also have roughly $15 million of grant funding.
03:04 - So what's it like to be A, such a young founder
03:11 and B, a woman in a very male-dominated,
03:14 science-heavy space?
03:16 - I'd say I think it's actually a privilege to be honest.
03:19 I think because of who we are,
03:22 we actually really stand out in the industry.
03:23 And a lot of times maybe it's a negative,
03:25 but we like to see the positive side of things
03:27 and really use it to our advantage.
03:28 So for example, when our company was first founded
03:32 back in 2018, we actually won some great
03:34 women founder-focused pitch competitions.
03:37 And that was sort of exclusive access
03:38 only we had access to.
03:40 So just really being able to capitalize on that I think.
03:43 - If you could go back in time
03:47 and tell yourself one piece of advice
03:49 the day before you launched your company, what would it be?
03:53 - I think if I were to go back in time,
03:55 the biggest advice I'd give to myself
03:57 is learn how to fail fast.
03:59 Learn how to basically experiment on ideas
04:01 and figure out what the most riskiest element is to that.
04:05 De-risk it first, and if it doesn't work,
04:07 then move on and basically adjust course.
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