Giraffe Bio Secures Seed Funding to Scale Copper Recovery Technology

Argentine startup Giraffe Bio, which operates in Chile, has closed a $6.4 million seed round to scale biochemical reagents designed to recover more copper from ore that mining companies already process. The financing, reported by TechCrunch on October 13, was led by Orion Industrial Ventures, with participation from BHP Ventures, Twynam, AIR Capital, and Baruch Future Ventures.

Founded in 2024 by CEO Alejandro Buffo Sempé and Chief Scientific Officer Juan Pablo Fernández, the company combines artificial intelligence and biotechnology to design molecules tailored to the characteristics of individual deposits. The funding will support increased production capacity, research, and larger-scale industrial trials.

More Copper Without Installing New Equipment

The technology targets flotation, the process used to separate valuable minerals from the rest of the mined material. Giraffe Bio develops reagents that selectively bind to specific minerals to improve that separation. According to the company, the reagents can be incorporated into existing processing circuits without modifying plant infrastructure.

In laboratory tests using real ore samples, the startup reported recovery improvements of 3 to 5 percentage points. Results vary by ore type and still need to be demonstrated at industrial scale; they do not represent a proven increase in commercial production.

“Mining companies need to process increasingly complex ores, but the chemistry used to separate them has changed little in decades,” Buffo Sempé said. The approach aims to update that chemistry without introducing living organisms into mining operations.

From Paid Programs to Supply Contracts

Giraffe Bio already generates revenue through development and validation programs with international mining companies. Its next commercial goal is to turn those trials into recurring supply contracts. Client names and specific results remain subject to confidentiality agreements.

The company is currently working with three global mining companies, according to El Cronista. The new investment will allow it to expand reagent production and move toward larger pilots.

Its expansion will maintain a division of responsibilities between the two countries. “We will strengthen our research and development capabilities in Argentina and concentrate scaling and supply to operations in Chile,” the CEO told Forbes Argentina.

Getting More From Existing Mines

The opportunity comes as electrification and the expansion of data centers increase copper requirements. Against the cost and difficulty of developing new deposits, Giraffe Bio aims to improve recovery from ore already reaching processing plants.

Its approach differs from that of startups using microorganisms to facilitate extraction: Giraffe Bio introduces biomolecules into the flotation process without having to keep microbes alive in the mining environment. Although it started with copper, the company says its platform can be adapted to other minerals.

Both co-founders are also listed in Breakthrough Energy’s Fellows program, which provides research funding, mentorship, and support to bring technologies from the laboratory to market. That transition—from experimental results to industrial performance and recurring supply—is now central to the startup’s plans.

Source: Startups Latam