DUBLIN, Calif. — November 18, 2025 — Leads & Copy — Erg Bio has secured $6.5 million in a seed funding round to scale its Aspire™ Technology, which transforms agricultural and forestry wastes into intermediates for synthetic aviation fuels and bio-based chemicals.
Azolla Ventures led the funding round, with participation from Chevron Technology Ventures, Freeflow, Plug and Play, and strategic angel investors.
The company’s Aspire™ Technology is a low-temperature pretreatment and catalytic platform that enhances resource efficiency, supports rural economies, and diversifies sources of critical intermediates, promoting environmental stewardship and domestic energy resilience.
Vineet Rajgarhia, Co-Founder and CEO of Erg Bio, stated the goal is to turn overlooked resources into cost-competitive synthetic aviation fuels and biochemicals, accelerating U.S. bioindustrial manufacturing. The investment will strengthen technical validation and advance toward pilot-scale demonstrations.
Erg Bio’s Aspire™ Technology, based on research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), operates with over 30 different biomass types, enhancing supply-chain resilience and cost-effectiveness.
Blake Simmons, Co-Founder and CTO of Erg Bio, said the investment will allow the company to expand its engineering and bioprocessing teams.
Amy Duffuor, General Partner and Co-Founder of Azolla Ventures, noted Erg Bio’s platform showcases how flexible non-food biomass technologies can reshape the supply chain for synthetic fuels and chemicals.
Jim Gable, President of Chevron Technology Ventures, added the Erg Bio platform addresses a bottleneck in cellulosic ethanol production, opening up a large untapped market.
Erg Bio Inc., based in California, aims to commercialize its Aspire™ Technology to produce cost-competitive synthetic aviation fuels and biochemicals from waste biomass, building a resilient bioeconomy and securing industrial supply chains.
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Source: Erg Bio
