Biotech startup PeelON has secured $1 million funding to scale compostable packaging for fruits and vegetables in a seed funding round. With procurement of seed funding from DeepTech-focused VC, GrowX ventures, with participation from Boston Venture Group, Clean Energy Venture Group, and Climate Angels, the company will scale its R&D and production facilities in Visakhapatnam strengthen hiring across sales in both the US and India.
The startup will also launch new marketing campaigns aimed at leafy greens, banana, and grape exporters, enabling the startup to pursue certifications and regulatory filings in different geographies.
Founded by scientists Dr. Venkata Ravi Sankar Ummidi and Dr. Taraka Ramji Moturu, whose backgrounds in molecular biology and biotechnology led them to develop compostable packaging films aimed at tackling post harvest losses and reducing plastic waste in fresh produce supply chains. PeelON specializes in biodegradable, compostable packaging for fresh produce, developing plant based films that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
The company operates on a B2B model, working with farmers, exporters and retailers to phase out single-use plastics at every step of the supply chain. The company’s products include ‘PeelON-Fresh’ offering liners for bulk shipments, and ‘PeelON-Retail’, bags with natural antimicrobial agents and ethylene scavengers. These components keeps fruits and vegetables fresh and reduces spoilage, providing an increased shelf life for the produce.
“At PeelON, we believe that sustainability must be accessible, affordable, and scalable. This funding allows us to bridge a critical gap in the global produce supply chain — by replacing single-use plastics with compostable, shelf-life-extending alternatives. With support from visionary investors like growX ventures, we’re building a new normal for how fresh food moves from farm to fork,” Dr. Taraka Ramji Moturu said.
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PeelON Building Sustainable Solutions
A PeelON film is made from renewable plant based inputs, including starches, plant proteins, biopolymers, and natural defense compounds enclosed for slow release. The technology processes naturally occurring plant fiber defense molecules and integrates them into a biodegradable polymer matrix via a patented encapsulation process. Slow release of vapors from molecules prevent microbial growth, delay ripening and maintain moisture. The film reduces oxygen and moisture transfer to slow spoilage, while being made entirely of food-safe materials certified for composting.
The commercial solutions are already being deployed for crops such as cilantro, broccoli, leafy greens, rambutan, and banana. The company has built a noticeable foothold from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh in India to Texas and California in the United Sates. The company also has initiated collaborations with universities and compostable materials labs across USA and India, to expand its solutions for other produces as well.
For a startup that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, PeelON’s production facility in Visakhapatnam, with an annual capacity of 250 tonnes, represents a sizeable scale of operations in the agri-biotech sector. The company’s focus was shaped by the founders’ background in plant sciences and microbiology, where they observed widespread post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables during research and fieldwork, leading them to develop solutions aimed at extending shelf life and reducing waste
Growing up in farming communities and working closely with growers, we saw that a lack of affordable, sustainable, and effective packaging was a key driver of food waste. The idea for PeelON evolved from lab experiments in natural plant defence compounds into a scalable biodegradable film that extends shelf life by decreasing reliance on refrigeration.
Road Ahead
PeelON has promoted its compostable packaging as a viable alternative to conventional plastics, capable of generating sizeable business returns through pilot projects. In 2019, India generated around 3.4 million tonnes of plastic waste of which packaging accounted for nearly 60 percent, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. Moturu has stated that PeelON’s pricing structure, combined with compliance advantages under Extended Producer Responsibility rules and other sustainability regulations, makes the solution relevant to exporters to manage both cost pressures and regulatory constraints. He also added that the benefits of extended shipping windows and access to premium sustainable markets further strengthens value proposition.
Estimates from a 2016–17 study by ICAR-CIPHET cite post-harvest losses ranging from approximately 4.6% to 15.9% for fruits and vegetables. A more recent 2022–23 NABCONS assessment places losses in fruits between 6% and 15%, and vegetables between roughly 4.9% and 11.6%. The structural challenges of packaging, transportation, and marketing, highlight the aims and requirement that sustainable packaging technologies seek to address.
Manish Gupta, General Partner at growX ventures, has stated that PeelON is taclking two urgent but often overlooked issues in global fresh produce supply chains, plastic waste and perishability. He pointed to the startup’s early commercial validation from exporters in India and the United States as evidence of market readiness.
