Via Separations, a startup company based on technology originally developed with MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) support, announced $36 million in new venture funding in April, bringing its total funding to about $80 million.
The Watertown, MA–based company has developed membrane technology that industrial customers use for separating liquids in their manufacturing processes. Traditionally, many industries use energy-intensive thermal methods for that separation, but Via Separations’ technology can reduce the amount of energy used by up to 90%, which also reduces emissions from the process.
The company’s technology evolved from research that MIT Professor Jeffrey Grossman, the Morton (1924) and Claire Goulder and Family Professor in Environmental Systems, started in 2012 with a grant from what is now MITEI’s Seed Innovation Fund Program. Shreya Dave PhD ’16, now CEO of Via Separations, and Brent Keller PhD ’16, now CTO, were both students in Grossman’s group at the time. Keller was also a MITEI Energy Scholar in 2016–2017. The three co-founded Via Separations in 2017. Grossman is chief scientist for the company.
Via Separations’ mechanically driven membrane process electrifies the traditionally heat-based separation by using modular filtration systems that can be integrated directly with existing equipment.
Via Separations’ first capital investment came from The Engine, the venture firm founded by MIT. Previous investors also include Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Safar Partners, and Prime Impact Fund. Investors in this latest round are Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
To date, the company has focused on the pulp and paper sector, having proven its technology with two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Canada. With this new investment, Via Separations plans to expand into refining and chemicals. Via Separations completed a pilot at a major refinery last year, according to the funding announcement.
“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” Dave said in the announcement. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the project portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane-based separations.”
One of Via Separations new investors, Aramco Ventures, is the corporate venture arm of the Saudi Arabia–based energy and chemicals company, Aramco.
“Via’s modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets,” said Tibor Toth, Sr., investment director at Aramco Ventures, in the announcement.