The fashion industry's search for a guilt-free fiber has produced a lot of brittle promises. It is a graveyard of good intentions, measured in tons of unsold, compostable t-shirts. Hitesh Manglani, a co-founder of Supercarb Inc., is trying a different angle. His company isn't just making a biodegradable alternative. It is trying to engineer one that is better, on purpose, from the start.
Supercarb's proposed feedstock is polysaccharide-rich waste biomass, things like discarded seaweed or citrus peel [Activate.org]. The pitch is to transform this into fibers whose properties,fire retardancy, antimicrobial effects, moisture-wicking,can be dialed in via what the company calls biomimetic nanostructures [Activate.org]. The goal is a material that isn't just less bad, but actively performance-enhancing for industrial workwear or athletic apparel, while still being carbon-neutral and cost-competitive.
The Fellowship Wedge
For a company with minimal public traction, Supercarb's path so far is a classic deep-tech story: validation through prestigious, non-dilutive fellowships. Manglani is a current fellow in the tenth cohort of the Cyclotron Road program at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab [Berkeley Lab News Center, 2024]. The company is also listed as part of the 2024 cohort for Activate, another fellowship for hard science entrepreneurs [Activate, 2024]. These programs provide lab space, scientific mentorship, and typically a stipend in the low six figures, which aligns with the disclosed ~$100,000 in total funding.
This is the company's current business model. It is a B2B play, aiming to supply fiber to fashion and industrial brands. The logic is that brands will pay a premium for a material that boosts a garment's functionality while checking the sustainability box, a dual value proposition that could, in theory, justify the swap from incumbent synthetics.
The Scaling Equation
The ambition is clear, but the path from a fellowship lab to a commercial textile roll is notoriously steep. Supercarb enters a field with established players who have already navigated some of the early commercial hurdles.
- Established competition. Finnish company Spinnova has a commercial-scale factory producing fiber from wood pulp, and has partnered with circular fiber producer Renewcell to integrate textile waste [Sourcing Journal]. They represent the current vanguard of new-gen fibers with brand partnerships already in place.
- The tunability claim. Supercarb's key differentiator is the promise of engineering specific performance traits into the base fiber. If real, this moves the conversation from commodity replacement to specialty material, a higher-margin game. The scientific credibility of the founding team, including co-founder Rakkiyappan Chandran, a physics professor at Appalachian State University [Appalachian State University], supports the research premise but not the manufacturing one.
- The biomass question. Sourcing consistent, scalable volumes of waste seaweed or citrus peel is a logistics and supply chain challenge entirely separate from the chemistry. A cost-competitive fiber requires a cost-competitive and reliable feedstock.
The math, at its simplest, is about displacement. The global polyester market is vast, measured in tens of millions of tons annually. For Supercarb's bet to matter, it needs to scale to at least thousands of tons. A back-of-the-envelope calculation: if one ton of their fiber can displace one ton of virgin polyester, it avoids roughly 5-7 tons of CO2 equivalent over its lifecycle. The real test is whether they can produce that ton for a price a brand will swallow, and then find the brand that needs a fire-retardant, moisture-wicking, biodegradable uniform. It is a high bar, but the only one that counts. To win, Supercarb must eventually beat not just the idea of sustainable fiber, but the commercial execution of an incumbent like Spinnova.
Sources
- [Activate.org] Supercarb | https://activate.org/supercarb
- [Berkeley Lab News Center, 2024] Introducing the 10th Cohort of Cyclotron Road Entrepreneurial Fellows | https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2024/07/10/introducing-the-10th-cohort-of-cyclotron-road-entrepreneurial-fellows/
- [Activate, 2024] Introducing Cohort 2024 | https://activate.org/news/introducing-cohort-2024
- [Appalachian State University] Dr. Rakkiyappan Chandran | Department of Physics and Astronomy | https://physics.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/dr-rakkiyappan-chandran-0
- [Sourcing Journal] Spinnova + Renewcell Are Teaming Up to Fuel Fashion's Circular Future | https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/raw-materials/spinnova-renewcell-circulose-partnership-textile-waste-fiber-circular-zara-innovation-454821/