Textile waste generates more greenhouse gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined, and most of what's produced ends up landfilled or burned. In this episode, Sera Tajima talks with Jean-Michel Scheuren, founder of Novobiom, about how fungi, nature's recyclers and chemists, can turn that waste into value. Jean-Michel breaks down how Novobiom uses fermentation, genomic modeling, and AI to separate cotton from polyester in blended textile waste, and how the same platform powers their bioremediation work decontaminating former industrial sites across Europe and their biotech partnership with L'Oréal. The conversation also touches on the shifting venture landscape for deep tech and biotech.
Get weekly deep tech intel
00:00 – Intro
01:24 – How Jean-Michel got into mycellium
02:17 – Fungi as nature's recyclers and chemists
03:35 – Why fungi over chemistry
06:27 – The scale of textile waste
07:30 – Reframing waste as a resource
09:44 – Why cotton-polyester blends are "free food" for fungi
14:08 – The client request that started Novobiom's textile work19:06 – The L'Oréal partnership
34:39 – Expanding into bioremediation
36:16 – Why bioremediation is cost-effective but underused
52:40 – The shifting VC landscape for deep tech and biotech
53:04 – Lightning round
55:22 – The meeting that changed Jean-Michel's life
Reach VCs, founders and operators:sponsors@conscioustech.vc
