Neoplants bioengineers houseplants to use them as air purifiers
Summary
Meet Neoplants, a French startup that is designing genetically modified houseplants so that they can absorb air pollutants. The startups first plant, the Neo P1, works hand in hand with the companys own microbiome located in the soil near the plant roots.Neoplants targets specifically a group of indoor air pollutants that cant be efficiently captured by traditional air purifiers. Cooking and smoking can also foster indoor pollution.Our plant can capture the four main components that cause air pollution at home. The startup selected the most efficient group of bacteria against toluene and benzene across multiple rounds of directed evolution. The company raised $20 million from True Ventures, Heartcore, Entrepreneur First, Collaborative Fund and various business angels, such as Niklas Zennstr\xf6m.Up next, Neoplants aims to use the same processes with other plant varieties and other properties.