Novobiom's EIC Accelerator Plan: Fungi That Eat Textile Waste

Mixed textiles are the hardest waste to recycle. A shirt of cotton and polyester has to be separated into its fibres before either can be reused, and most of it is burned or landfilled instead. Novobiom, a company from Liège, proposes to let fungi do the separating: grown on shredded textile waste, selected strains break down the material and produce biosurfactants and enzymes along the way, with biogas from what is left.

The EIC Accelerator backed the idea at its October 2024 cut-off with blended finance. CORDIS records a grant of €2,496,055.35 for WASTE2WEALTH, running from 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2027, to build a pilot biorefinery for 200 tonnes of textile waste a year and engineer a 12,000-tonne demonstration plant. A year and a half in, the company has selected strains, built models and drawn blueprints, but no pilot plant has been reported.

From polluted soil to waste streams

Novobiom began with mycoremediation: fungi that break down pollutants in soil, sludge and sediments. Its first EU money was a €75,000 Women TechEU grant from July 2023 to June 2024, used to build a database of fungal strains for environmental uses, secure the company's core intellectual property and plan how to expand into other applications. The register names Caroline Zaoui as a director since 2020, and Jean-Michel Scheuren represents the managing director's company, according to the company register.

The soil work continues alongside the textile project. Novobiom is a partner in LIFE InBioSoil, coordinated by the Spanish research centre Eurecat, which injects fungi and bacteria into soil contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and will test the method at one site in Spain and one in Belgium. In the LIFE PFASTER project, Novobiom tests fungal strategies against PFAS in soil, water and biomass. Neither project has published results yet.

The company website now lists four lines of business: precision bioremediation, textile recycling, biosurfactants and biomolecules, and contract research. It describes a platform that combines its fungal strains with AI-based digital twins of the process and fermentation technology.

Solid-state fermentation on textile scraps

In solid-state fermentation the fungi grow on a moist solid material rather than in a liquid tank. Novobiom's strains grow on mixed textile waste and, according to the project summary, turn it into three products: biosurfactants, which could replace petrochemical surfactants in cosmetics and cleaning products; enzymes; and biogas from the residue. The approach does not need the fibres sorted first, which is what makes mixed textiles so expensive to recycle mechanically or chemically.

The commercial case depends on the price of the outputs. Biosurfactants sell to cosmetics and detergent makers who want to replace petrochemical ingredients; that is why L'Oréal is the most visible partner. In May 2024 Novobiom was selected for the cosmetics group's Green Science incubation programme, Silicon Canals reported, and on 14 January 2026 L'Oréal named Novobiom among the first 13 companies in L'AcceleratOR, its €100 million sustainability programme run with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. The programme offers pilot readiness support and 6 to 9 month pilots with L'Oréal; the release does not mention an investment.

A seed round that did not show up as new shares

Novobiom raised a €2 million seed round in May 2024 from Noshaq, Planetary Impact Ventures, the Circular Innovation Fund, Ciri Ventures and angel investors, to build the biorefinery pilot, launch its soil remediation products and grow the team, according to Silicon Canals and Mycostories.

The round did not appear as new shares. The share capital still stands at €518,600, and the Official Gazette shows only board changes since 2022, according to Staatsbladmonitor. Instead, debts rose from €0.42 million at the end of 2023 to €2.88 million at the end of 2024 and €3.27 million at the end of 2025, while equity stayed between €0.55 million and €0.8 million. The structure of the seed instruments is not public.

The company grew in size: total assets rose from €0.61 million in 2022 to €3.92 million in 2025. The operating loss, below €0.35 million a year until 2024, tripled to €1.0 million in 2025, the first year of the EIC project. The accounts do not disclose turnover or headcount.

WASTE2WEALTH after one year

The first periodic report, covering June 2025 to May 2026, lists a refined in-silico model of the biorefinery with new modules and software, the selection of promising fungal strains and the start of a breeding programme, optimised processes, and blueprints, schedules and economic models for demonstration and industrial capacity. It gives no yields, volumes or performance figures.

Whether the blended award's equity part has been invested is not public; no EIC Fund investment has been announced, and the register shows no new shares.

1. Strain selection for textile wasteUnder wayCandidates selected and breeding started, per the periodic report.
2. 200 tonne per year pilot biorefineryNot reportedBlueprints and schedules exist; no plant reported built.
3. Biosurfactants for cosmetics and cleaningPilot trackSelected for L'Oréal's L'AcceleratOR in January 2026; no product launched.
4. 12,000 tonne demonstration plant designToo earlyEconomic models drawn up; the project runs to May 2027.

Why the EU wants textiles recycled

Directive 2025/1892, which amends the EU's Waste Framework Directive and was published in September 2025, makes producers of textiles and footwear pay for separate collection systems across each member state, according to Debevoise & Plimpton's summary. That will create large volumes of collected but hard to recycle material. A process that turns mixed fabrics into ingredients for cosmetics and detergents would give that waste a buyer. The CORDIS report scores the project at 100% for climate action and for biodiversity.