Business Roundup

Renewcell plans to open a 60,000-metric-ton-per year mixed waste–textile recycling plant—the first of its kind, it says—in Sundsvall, Sweden, in 2022. Renewcell will use equipment from the engineering firm Valmet to convert textile waste into a pulp ready for spinning into new fiber.

Clariant has secured a licensing deal—its fifth overall—for its sunliquid cellulosic ethanol technology with Harbin Hulan Sino-Dan Jianye Bio-Energy. The latter will use Clariant’s technology to produce 25,000 metric tons of ethanol annually from corn stover in Heilongjiang Province, China.

Mitsubishi Corp. will work with CarbonCure, a Canadian firm that sells technology to trap carbon dioxide in cement and concrete, to bring the low-carbon building material to Japan and other parts of Asia. The Japanese conglomerate also made an undisclosed investment in the company.

Evonik Industries has invested in Chembid, a digital marketplace for chemicals based in Oldenburg, Germany. Evonik will discontinue its OneTwoChem chemical marketplace and make its Coatino voice-activated digital lab assistant for coatings research available on Chembid.

Phospholutions, a spin-off from Pennsylvania State University, has raised $10.3 million in a first round of funding led by Continental Grain. The start-up has developed a soil amendment that helps deliver phosphorus and other nutrients to crops.

Merck & Co. is licensing CAR-NK cell therapies from Artiva Biotherapeutics for $30 million up front and the possibility of an additional $15 million. Merck will clinically develop the treatments, which use engineered NK cells to fight disease.

Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to buy AK1780 from Asahi Kasei Pharma for an up-front payment of $20 million and subsequent payments of up to $210 million. AK1780 is being developed to treat neuroinflammation.

Cellino, founded by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has raised $16 million in seed financing from Khosla Ventures and The Engine, an MIT incubator. Cellino is developing automated technology to create induced pluripotent stem cell therapies.