Every startup tries to solve a problem. However, sometimes it is not the problem you had in mind when you founded the company, as Mari-Ann Meigo Fonseca, co-founder of Tallinn-based Gelatex, can attest.
Gelatex produces 3D nanofiber scaffolds for various applications, from cell culture to tissue engineering.
“But we started the company with a completely different business idea in mind,” Meigo Fonseca tells TNW.
First target: the textile industry
Building a business is often less about sticking to an initial, rigid plan and more about embracing and adapting to changes that occur as the business progresses.
With a background in the textile industry and clothing technology, Meigo Fonseca initially wanted to contribute to the sustainability of the fashion sector – a mission that led her to complete an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Technology Management at the University of Tartu in 2015.
There she met her co-founder, materials scientist and engineer Märt-Erik Martens.
In 2016, the duo entered the ClimateLaunchpad competition and won with their idea of creating leather-like textiles from gelatin nanofibers. In the same year, they founded Gelatex and continued to develop the product.
“One of our first challenges was that even if the material worked, we wouldn’t be able to produce it on a large scale using existing production technologies,” says Meigo Fonseca.
“It would simply be too expensive.”
The birth of HaloSpin
The duo decided to solve the problem themselves, and in 2017, Martens developed a new technology for producing nanofibers, which he called “HaloSpin.”
Halospinning involves spinning (or pulling) nanofibers from liquid polymer solutions without the use of electrostatic forces.
It is faster than traditional alternatives such as electrospinning and can increase production capacity by a hundredfold, Gelatex says. This means cost savings of up to 90%.
“The largest industrial unit of electrospinning costs about €8 million and can produce about 360 grams of nanofibers per hour,” says Meigo Fonseca.
“With our pilot machine we can produce 2.2 kg per hour and we are already building a machine [with a capacity] of 5kg per hour.”
Left: Gelatex' halospun nanofibers. Right: electrospun nanofibers. Image credit: Gelatex
Another advantage of the method is the unique morphological properties it provides. This results in highly porous 3D scaffolds that can be adapted to different materials and applications.
Focus on the medical sector and cultured meat
Thanks to halospinning, the startup was able to achieve product-market fit with several international companies for the first time.
But although there was interest, the company never got to the point where it could actually sell the product.
“The COVID pandemic in 2020 was the beginning of a turning point for us,” she says. That’s when Gelatex began using its technology to mass produce nanofiber filter material for face masks.
The process enabled the founders to realize the full potential of nanofibers and recognize the need for scalable production in cell culture.
Starting that same year, Gelatex moved away from the textile industry and focused on the production of nanofiber materials for cultured meat, as well as 3D cell culture and tissue engineering for the medical and pharmaceutical sectors.
“In the long term, cultured meat production is the biggest market for us,” says Meigo Fonsenca. However, given the regulatory challenges of the sector and the high investments that such companies need to scale, Gelatex will focus on the medical sector over the next five years.
Applications range from stem cell research and toxicology studies to drug discovery in 3D tissue models.
According to Meigo Fonseca, the path from science to entrepreneurship is not an easy one. One of her pieces of advice for founding teams is that members complement each other and combine both scientific and business backgrounds.
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