Portuguese venture capital firm invests in textile start-up BioPuff

Faber VC has co-led an investment round for British biomaterials specialist Ponda, backing the launch of BioPuff, a plant-based alternative to down insulation already used by Positive Materials.

Ponda has announced that it has raised US$2.4 million (approximately €2.2 million) to commercialise its plant-based BioPuff insulation and expand its European wetland farming network.

The round was co-led by Lisbon-based Faber VC and London-based Counteract, with participation from PDS Ventures, Evenlode Impact and the Royal College of Art. This brings the company’s total funding to US$6.5 million, comprising venture capital alongside multiple grants and awards from Innovate UK, the Terra Carta Design Lab and the H&M Foundation- Ponda was among the winners of the H&M Foundation’s 2022 innovation award.

BioPuff is a thermal insulation material made from Typha, a wetland plant grown through paludiculture- the process of rewetting and sustainably cultivating degraded peatlands. It delivers thermal performance on a par with goose down, but at lower cost and with a markedly positive environmental impact. For Rita Sousa, a partner at Faber, “by combining regenerative agriculture in coastal areas with an advanced material with strong potential in the textile sector and beyond, Ponda is well placed to unlock significant opportunities across multiple industries, while generating a real impact on biodiversity at scale.”

According to Ponda, the funding will enable it to increase production capacity, moving from the pilot phase to commercial scale, while strengthening its network of Typha growers in several European countries. Ponda also plans to launch the first commercial BioPuff lines for the autumn/winter 2026 collections. Julian Ellis-Brown, the company’s co-founder and CEO, emphasises that “each coat filled with BioPuff does not just avoid emissions; it directly funds the restoration of peatlands, one of the most powerful carbon sinks on the planet.”

The importance of this production model stems from the fact that drained peatlands release around 2 gigatonnes of emissions a year, further increasing the risk of flooding. By working with landowners to rewet these areas and cultivate Typha, Ponda is helping to convert sources of emissions into carbon sinks, potentially avoiding up to 30 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per hectare each year, the company says.

Founded at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, Ponda has evolved from an academic project into a company with active industrial operations. Its Bristol facility includes fibre processing, blending, and prototyping, enabling the development and testing of BioPuff.

The company already works with brands such as Berghaus, Stella McCartney, Parley for the Oceans, and Sheep Inc., with whom it has developed prototypes to test the material’s durability and performance in real-world conditions. Positive Materials, part of the PDS group, also presented a bomber jacket in Paris last year, made with Oval faux fur and insulated with BioPuff.

Although the fashion sector is currently the main application, BioPuff is also being explored for areas such as home textiles, furniture, toys, and other uses.