Vyld, a startup developing sustainable, marine biodegradable and healthy period products from seaweed, has closed its seed round of financing in a deal in the seven-figure range. In addition to funding from the German government and the EU, the founders are relying on a self-developed sustainable financing instrument, the Future Profit Partnership Agreement (FPPA). The current financing round will allow Vyld to launch  Kelpon, the world’s first tampon made from seaweed, this year while also developing its Algaeverse portfolio for B2B and B2C markets.

Following the successful consumer trial of the Kelpon with more than 100 menstruators in fall 2023, the pilot phase of the Vyndel has just started. The Vyndel is part of the Windelwald (‘diaper forest’) cooperation with Goldeimer: a compostable diaper with an algae core, without plastic and superabsorbents. In the pilot project with 50 households, the radically sustainable diaper is being tested for its suitability in everyday life and as a humus fertilizer. The used diapers are composted under controlled conditions and a small forest is planted from the fertilizer – the diaper forest.

Founders  Ines Schiller and Melanie Schichan started Vyld in 2021 with a vision fro circular products made from seaweek. As a non-exit-oriented company, Vyld is an alternative to the typical VC start-up: a company in steward ownership that focuses on long-term sustainability – including economical sustainability:

“Tackling questions of ownership, power and financing is crucial to me as an entrepreneur. Business models create realities and extractive models do not only threaten the environment and health, but also reproduce exploitative standards and anti-democratic tendencies. We want to counter this with a model that promotes creation instead of consumption, quality instead of quantity and triple top line instead of hypergrowth,” says Schiller.

Schiller is applying her financial expertise as a renowned feature film producer to develop a mezzanine financial instrument that combines advantages of equity and debt capital and enables an appropriate return for investors, while at the same time ensuring Vyld’s independence. Instead of a conventional equity round, they offer a profit share and the agreement ends as soon as the return is achieved.