Group Lead, Ved Krishna
Cellulotech CEO Romain Metivet met Ved at a Hack Food Summit – where an unexpected conversation around packaging started – and a year later – has continued on the Good Garbage podcast. Learn about Romain’s journey to Cellulotech – and why the work they’re doing has us excited. Cellulotech is a lea
0:00 – Introduction to CellularTech and Bio-Based Barrier Chemistry
Roman Metet, founder and CEO of CellularTech, is working on replacing plastic barrier coatings with cellulose-based chemistry. The target is food-safe, compostable coatings that perform comparably to the polymer coatings they’re designed to replace.
11:00 – Cellulose as a Scalable and Sustainable Raw Material
Cellulose is already processed at enormous scale, which makes it an unusually credible feedstock for a sustainable barrier chemistry platform. Roman explains why that existing infrastructure matters and how CellularTech’s process exploits cellulose’s molecular properties.
22:00 – The Technology Story: From Hack Summit to Commercial Platform
Roman met his co-founder Daniel at a hack summit in Switzerland. He explains how that meeting led to building a cellulose chemistry platform from first principles with a small team, and what the early years of getting the technology to work actually looked like.
33:00 – Paper Folding, Creasing, and Physical Performance Requirements
Barrier coatings on paper have to survive folding, creasing, and the mechanical stresses of packaging conversion. Roman explains how CellularTech’s coatings are designed for that and why physical durability is a requirement most bio-based coatings currently fail to meet.
44:00 – Water Vapour Transmission Rate and the Key Performance Metrics
WVTR, the rate at which water vapour passes through packaging, is one of the hardest performance benchmarks for food packaging. Roman explains where CellularTech’s coatings sit on that metric and what technical advances are needed to close the remaining gap with conventional plastics.
55:00 – Regulatory Approvals and Food Contact Compliance Across Jurisdictions
Getting a novel bio-based coating approved for food contact requires navigating different regulatory frameworks in different markets. Roman explains CellularTech’s certification strategy and how they work with regulatory bodies across jurisdictions.
66:00 – The Funding Gap for Deep-Tech Packaging Startups
Deep-tech packaging companies struggle to raise because most venture funds don’t understand the sector and the capital requirements are high relative to early revenues. Roman explains what the funding landscape looks like for barrier chemistry startups and what he thinks needs to change.
77:00 – Beyond Packaging: Future Applications for Bio-Based Barrier Technology
CellularTech’s bio-based barrier chemistry has potential uses beyond packaging, including release liners and filtration. Roman explains how the core technology platform could expand across sectors as it matures.
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