IKEA invests in cellulose platform for coatings and personal care applications

Inter IKEA Group has backed a €13.4 million (US$15.6 million) Series A round in Swiss biomaterials company Seprify to scale its cellulose-based alternative to titanium dioxide for coatings, cosmetics, and food applications. 

Seprify transitions its cellulose platform from pilot validation into procurement-ready industrial supply. The transition is said to allow manufacturers to move from trials into repeatable sourcing and longer-term commercial agreements. 

The shift responds to growing demand for scalable, bio-based alternatives to high-emission incumbent materials such as titanium dioxide. 

“This funding enables us to focus on execution and scale,” says Lukas Schertel, co-founder and CEO at Seprify. “Our immediate priority is delivering consistent quality and reliable supply, meeting the operational standards large industrial customers require.” 

“In the near term, that means supporting cosmetics and personal care, including suncare, as well as food and pet food. We are also scaling for higher-volume applications such as coatings, inks, and printed electronics, reflecting the broader potential of our cellulose platform.”

Robert Carleke, Innovation Ventures manager at Inter IKEA Group, adds that IKEA searches for solutions that can replace high-impact incumbent materials that fit into existing manufacturing and recycling systems.

“Seprify’s cellulose platform has reached a level of maturity that makes this a credible path to explore — not only for specific applications such as coatings and surface finishes, but as a scalable materials platform with the consistency and operational readiness required for industrial use. We’re looking forward to this exploratory project,” he says.

Moving to commercial supply

Seprify’s cellulose platform has been validated at TRL 7–9, meaning it has moved out of the research lab and is now being proven in a real-world operational environment.

The move was enabled through collaboration with industry partners and is now progressing through supplier qualification processes, early commercial contracts, and procurement discussions across cosmetics and personal care, food and pet food, and coatings. 

The company is engaged with over 100 customer organizations, spanning active evaluations through to early commercial supply.

Investors include Inter IKEA Group, Una Terra Early Growth Fund, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Kickfund, and other circular-economy investors.

With the new capital, Seprify will scale commercial production to hundreds of tons annually through established manufacturing partners, support commercial rollout across its priority markets, and advance engineering work for future industrial-scale capacity. 

For customers, this enables a move from evaluation and trials into repeatable supply, supporting formal procurement discussions and longer-term sourcing decisions.

Seprify’s cellulose platform combines deep process know-how, application expertise, and strong intellectual property spanning process, product, and end-use applications. 

The platform’s flagship products include SilvaLuma, a cellulose-based SPF booster for cosmetics and personal care, and SilvaAlba, a food-grade whitening ingredient designed to replace titanium dioxide.