Melazyme, a precision fermentation company developing high-performance functional biomolecules, has closed a US$2 million seed round led by SeaX Ventures, with participation from Stellaris Venture Partners and Plug and Play Ventures.
The funding will support platform development, production scale-up and early commercial deployment across the company’s portfolio of target molecules.
Founded in 2025 by Perumal Gandhi, co-founder of Perfect Day, and Bonney Oommen, former chief product and strategy officer at Perfect Day, Melazyme is building a fermentation platform distinguished by functional depth rather than commodity output. The company’s patent-pending proprietary tech covers both the production platform and its applications across multiple industries.
Central to Melazyme’s commercial strategy is melanin — a naturally occurring biopolymer that combines broad-spectrum UV absorption, chemical stability and a strong affinity for metal ions. Despite decades of scientific interest, a consistent, application-ready supply of melanin has remained elusive. Melazyme’s platform addresses this gap by producing commercially viable melanin with tunable functional properties engineered for specific end uses across cosmetics, functional coatings, advanced materials, and filtration and environmental remediation.
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A particularly distinctive aspect of melanin’s profile is its selective affinity for metal ions, enabling applications in heavy-metal sequestration and rare-earth element recovery — capabilities attracting growing interest from industries working to diversify supply chains for critical materials used in clean energy, electronics, and defence.
Near-term commercial activity is centred on cosmetics, where melanin’s UV protection and natural pigmentation properties are driving early engagement with global manufacturers. The company is also advancing brazzein — a heat-stable natural sweet protein — with commercial partners in the food and beverage sector.
“Our platform is built around the ability to tune molecular function for specific applications. With melanin, that means the same underlying material can be engineered to solve entirely different problems across industries,” said Gandhi, co-founder and CEO of Melazyme.
SeaX Ventures, a global venture capital firm focused on deep-tech startups, cited both the founding team’s pedigree and the breadth of the platform’s application space as key factors in its investment decision.
“Perumal and Bonney bring rare experience building and scaling precision fermentation companies,” said Dr Kid Parchariyanon, managing partner of SeaX Ventures. “This is the kind of founding team and platform-level technology that comes along once in a generation — and SeaX is proud to back it.”
The investment arrives as precision fermentation attracts intensifying investor attention. The global market is expected to grow from approximately US$20 billion today to over US$70 billion by 2030, with projections suggesting it could reach US$200 billion by 2040 as food, materials and speciality ingredients transition toward bio-manufacturing.
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