Commercializing a new generation of membranes for sustainable wastewater reuse to clean up our environment from industrial contamination and provide water where it is scarce.
Founded and based in RTP, NC by two female co-founders. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes based on polyamides continue to dominate the market after 40 years because there are no better alternatives. Today, RO is being applied to new alternative water sources, such as wastewater, to solve the issue of water scarcity. Polyamide RO membranes are known to foul (clog) and fail as a result of biofouling because effective disinfectants like chlorine (bleach) are incompatible with polyamides. Studies show that biofouling is responsible for 24% of operating costs meaning millions of dollars annually for individual industrial and municipal systems. NALA's chlorine stable RO membranes will eliminate biofouling with bleach, bringing down the cost, complexity, and climate impact of RO operations by reducing membrane fouling, cleaning, and replacement. Regulations and water availability are driving industries to treat and/or reuse their wastewater. Many industries, such as food & beverage, oil & gas, and microelectronics are high water users and manage large industrial water treatment systems. Smarter membrane solutions for these industries that provide them more water and less risk are key opportunities for NALA. NALA's key performance metrics include competitive flux and rejection in conjunction with chemical resistance to acids, bases, and bleach and the broadest operating pH range of any other membrane. Coupled with a cleaner and more sustainable manufacturing process that will be less expensive at scale than current polyamide membranes, NALA's membrane solutions are the next generation of RO membranes that will grow the industry and capabilities of the technology.
Sue Mecham, Co-founder and CEO: Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech. Manufacturing, business operations, management, and product development experience at Acadia Polymers. Director of Operations at Polymer Solutions Incorporated where she grew the company 3X. R&D group, student, and proposal management at Virginia Tech and UNC at Chapel Hill. Judy Riffle, Co-founder and CTO: Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech. VP of R&D at Thoratec Industries. Tenured professor in Chemistry and Founder and Director of MACRO program at Virginia Tech. Randy Truby, VP Marketing & Sales: 50 yrs experience in membrane industry. CEO Fluid Systems and Toray USA, VP manufacturing operations Hydranautics USA, Global Sales Director NanoH2O. Tim Debone, fractional CFO experienced in finance, accounting, legal, and HR at enterprise and startup companies.
Our GTM strategy is informed and worked by a professional with over 50 years in the membrane industry (Randy Truby). NALA is selling sulfonated polysulfone thin film composite (sPS TFC) membrane sheet and sPS TFC spiral wound elements. Membrane sheet is sold to companies that produce various membrane form factors such as spiral wound elements of a range of sizes and plate and frame elements. We have significant pending orders of membrane sheet from Concord enviro. We are in discussions with AMI (Applied Membranes Inc.) and Osmotik regarding selling membrane sheet to them for under the sink sized spiral elements. We are in discussions with Mann+Hummel (M+H), a global membrane manufacturer, on sales of membrane sheet to them for their spiral wound element product line. We have developed a relationship with M+H as a manufacturing partner and we are in diligence regarding CVC investment and actively expanding the manufacturing partnership. The customers for spiral wound membrane elements fall into two categories, end-users and system integrators or EPC (OEMs). Many of the OEMs build systems and also operate and/or maintain them so operating costs are critical to them as well as end users. We are in discussion with OEMs that need better membranes for the challenging applications they are trying to serve. Our OEM customers include Digested Organics, Osmoflo, Veolia, Saltworks, and others. We are discussing applications and pilots with large enterprise end-users including Coca Cola, Intel, and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).
The bulk of future revenue will come from the sale of membrane sheet and elements as described in the GTM section. Initially manufacturing will be at or through contract manufacturers. Initially the revenue generated while we are using contract manufacturing will be unprofitable even at premium membrane prices. Consolidation of manufacturing operations will reduce logistics and shipping costs and risks. Building operations directly under NALA’s control will drop manufacturing costs below those of current commercial membrane manufacturing operations. Licensing the technology to other manufacturers is a longer-range plan to expand the distribution and adoption of NALA’s sulfonated polysulfone membrane technology faster. An early order for membrane sheet is in negotiations to target $1,000,000 in annual recurring revenue from one customer. An enterprise customer we are in discussions with would provide orders of more than $1,500,000 annually for spiral wound elements used in multiple sites. The NALA team has specialized in R&D for polymers and membrane manufacturing. We have generated over $250,000 in revenue through specialty development projects of both membranes and polymers in 2024. Development project revenue will continue for projects that fall well within our current scope of work and bandwidth or projects where successful completion will lead to profitable follow-on revenue.
NALA will raise a series A targeted at $10M by mid 2025. We are in discussions with PureTerra to lead the round but at the time of this submission this is not yet confirmed. Additional VC interest in our series A includes Arosa Capital and GVP Climate Fund. Prior to this raise we will demonstrate customer validation through pilot tests and sales and a strong order book and sales pipeline. Funds will be used to support membrane manufacturing with contract manufacturers and to hire industry experienced manufacturing and customer facing technical service and sales staff and secure resources for expanding the orders and sales pipeline. Financing options will be secured to build out a domestic manufacturing solution to enable profitable and expandable manufacturing and sales. Based on the experience of industry experts, the clear differentiating characteristics of NALA's membranes indicates the potential for a large exit through M&A at a relatively early stage of commercial growth.
NALA's sulfonated polysulfone membranes have transitioned rapidly from TRL4 to TRL6 in 2024. We have demonstrated the manufacturing of commercial scale products, including 40" wide membrane sheet and standard format 40" spiral wound elements, using contract manufacturers and our MVP membranes are in a commercial pilot test on textile wastewater in India. Additional pilot tests are under discussion in USA, Australia, and South America and further commercial opportunities have been identified. We have developed a membrane platform based on sulfonated polysulfone thin film composites with the potential to develop a suite of chlorine tolerant membranes ranging from nanofiltration for separating metals and minerals to brackish and seawater desalination. In addition to the chlorine stability that enables disinfection and rapid membrane cleaning, the membranes also have a smooth durable surface that presents lower fouling and scaling rates than polyamide membranes. Another important feature that sets NALA apart is the broad operating pH range where NALA's membrane maintain high salt rejection across the full range of 2-12. This feature offers opportunities to sustainably treat acidic or caustic waste streams that are often found in mining, O&G, and semi-conductor chip manufacturing waste streams. Current efforts at NALA are centered on manufacturing higher volumes of membrane sheet using contract manufacturing strategies to meet customer demand and testing membrane sheet and elements under conditions of interest to customers to support pilot planning and customer operations and processes. Scaling up the volume and production rate of polymer, membrane sheet, and spiral elements are 2025 activities.
NSF SBIR Phase I(subs were VT and UT-Austin)$250,000, Phase II $1,000,000, and Phase IIB $375,000 NAWI grant (NALA is lead with OCWD and Trussell Technologies as subs) $450,000 Angel/VC investment: $4,800,000 (including Good Growth Capital, Oval Park Capital, UT Austin Seed fund)
