Porelio, a Germany-based deeptech startup
developing advanced materials for industrial separation and water treatment,
has raised €2.4 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. The
investment was led by Faber, with participation from Polytechnique Ventures,
Grupo Tecnológica and better ventures.
Founded in 2025, Porelio is developing advanced
materials designed to recover precious metals from industrial effluents and
remove persistent PFAS chemicals from water. The company’s technology is based
on Functionalized Ordered Mesoporous Silicas (FOMS), a class of materials that
selectively capture targeted molecules while allowing the remaining liquid to
pass through.
The company’s key innovation is a patented
continuous-flow manufacturing process that enables FOMS to be produced at
industrial scale. According to Porelio, the process is around 30 times faster
than conventional production methods while operating under more sustainable
conditions. The materials can also be regenerated, potentially reducing the
cost of water and industrial effluent treatment.
Porelio says its technology has demonstrated
promising results in proof-of-concept projects across Europe. In testing, its
materials captured palladium around six times faster than conventional
adsorption technologies and removed significantly more trifluoroacetic acid
(TFA), one of the most persistent PFAS compounds, than commercial activated
carbon under comparable conditions.
This chemistry has sat on laboratory
benches for thirty years. Everyone could see its potential; no one had made it
at the scale that matters. A material that works by the gram cannot clean a
contaminated water supply nor recover the metal lost in an industrial stream.
We solved the scale, so it can finally do that work,
said Dr Rhea Machado, CEO and co-founder of Porelio.
The fresh capital will be used to accelerate
technology development and scale production of the company’s FOMS materials
from pilot-scale manufacturing measured in kilograms per day to industrial
production measured in tonnes per year.
Porelio also plans to convert its existing
industrial collaborations into commercial partnerships following several
successful proof-of-concept projects across Europe.