Funding for PILI can open new chapter in colour production
Toulouse-based dye provider PILI has said it is ready to begin industrial-level production of bio-based, high-performance pigments after securing €4 million in new funding.
The financial backing for what the company has called “a new chapter in the history of colour production” has come from existing investors, an angel-investor network in Germany and France’s covid-19 recovery plan.
Part of that recovery plan is to invest in relocating to France strategic industrial activities that respect the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
PILI said its aim was to scale up the production of bio-based pigments using local, renewable raw materials such as straw, oil from biomass and molasses. It said: “These processes will make it possible to significantly reduce the colour industry’s CO2 emissions on a global scale. They will also make it possible to reduce dependence on Asian imports, recreating European supply.”
