Segetis, one of the country's emerging "green chemistry" companies, is poised for significant growth thanks to recent customer acquisitions and additional capital.
"With the customers and funding we now have, we can ramp up production and market development," said CEO Atul Thakrar, a chemist and 25-year veteran of the chemical industry. "Our goal is to grow and become cash-flow positive."
Segetis develops and manufactures plant-based resins that supplant the petroleum used in cleaning solutions, plastics and synthetics.
"We deliver performance first," said Thakrar. "Our product works better, and it takes less of it to do the job. And then, I say, 'OK, by the way, we're also bio-based' and for many customers that helps them position themselves in a 'greener' light."
In recent weeks, Golden Valley-based Segetis has:
•Quietly raised $25 million, its fourth and largest round of capital, led by Saudi Basic Industries Corp. Ventures (SABIC) and participation by existing investors Khosla Ventures, Malaysia Life Science Capital Fund and Royal DSM. The company has raised a total of $60 million over several years.
•Started to look for a second manufacturing plant so it can increase its capacity beyond the 3 million pounds annually of cleaning solvents and plasticizers it makes from biomass materials like corncobs and wood chips that go into name-brand manufactured products. Segetis plans to increase employment in Golden Valley and at a small plant in rural Wisconsin by 20 to 36 percent over the next few weeks, even before it acquires or builds another plant, probably by early 2013.
•Struck a deal with big Georgia Gulf Corp., the maker of chemical compounds and building materials, to develop renewable materials to help customers meet their sustainability goals through a flexible vinyl compound based on Segetis-developed "bio-plasticizers."
