Sea6 Energy
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Sowmya Balendiran
Sailaja Nori
Shrikumar Suryanarayan Sayash Kumar
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biofuel |
| Founded | Chennai, India, July 2010[1] |
| Founder | Nelson Vadassery Sowmya Balendiran Sailaja Nori Shrikumar Suryanarayan Sayash Kumar |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Bioplastics, Biostimulants, Food ingredients and Biofuel |
| Website | www |
Sea6 Energy is a seaweed company based in Bangalore, India[2] that focuses on cultivating and processing tropical seaweed species.[3] The company has developed a proprietary cultivation mechanism called the SeaCombine, which can simultaneously harvest and replant seaweed in deep ocean waters, enabling cost-competitive production at scale. The company has also developed proprietary technologies to convert fresh seaweed into environmentally friendly products for a range of industries including agriculture, animal health, food ingredients, bioplastics and renewable chemicals.[3] In 2012, Sea6 Energy was given the title of "Emerging Company of the Year" by the Government of Karnataka.[4]
As students at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) in 2008, the company's four founders—Nelson Vadassery, Sailaja Nori, Sowmya Balendiran, and Sayash Kumar—sought out the help of their professor, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, to aid in entering the iGEM competition hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5] Suryanarayan, now the Managing Director of Sea6 Energy, helped the students enter their project in the competition and spurred their interest in the biofuel industry.[5] Suryanarayan had also previously worked at the Indian biotechnology company, Biocon, where his own interest in studying seaweed as a biofuel was piqued.[6]
The company was founded in July 2010 with funding from a few IIT Madras alumni, Suryanarayan, the Indian Department of Biotechnology, and other investors.[6] The company began operation in Chennai, using laboratories and equipment provided by IIT Madras.[1] The company would later move to their current location in Bangalore to take advantage of facilities and instrumentation at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP),[7] a company co-founded by Shrikumar Suryanarayan.[8]
On 31 January 2012, Sea6 Energy signed a deal with Danish biotech company, Novozymes.[9] The goal of the partnership is to facilitate the conversion of seaweed carbohydrates into sugars that can be used to produce ethanol.[10]