Seamoretech Raises ~$1.2M Seed to Turn Desalination Brine Into Minerals

Seamoretech, a Porto, Portugal-based cleantech startup that turns desalination brine into freshwater and minerals, has raised €1.1 million (about $1.2 million) in the first closing of its seed round, Startup Rise reported on November 2. The company did not disclose a valuation, and no lead investor was named.

Rypples, 7Seas Capital and Crédito Agrícola participated in the round; Startup Rise describes the investors as having OceanTech and ClimateTech experience. The first close brings Seamoretech's total funding to €3 million, according to Startup.eu, which added that a second closing is expected in the coming months.

From University Lab to Brine Plants

Seamoretech was founded in 2021 by Sofia Delgado, its CEO, and Eva Sousa as a spin-off of the University of Porto's Faculty of Engineering (FEUP). It targets brine, the highly saline liquid waste left over from desalination, which many industries discharge into the sea.

Its product is a containerised system installed at existing plants that uses forward osmosis to recover freshwater and minerals, including magnesium, calcium, copper and lithium. The system is designed to operate on a Zero Liquid Discharge basis, so liquid waste is not returned to the ocean, and it runs without interrupting plant operations or requiring upfront investment from operators.

Performance Claims

The company says its technology can double freshwater production, cut energy use by 50% compared with reverse osmosis, lower operating costs by 30% and reduce carbon emissions by up to 80% versus traditional mineral mining. Those are company claims and have not been independently verified. No customer, revenue or deployment figures were disclosed.

Use of Funds and Spanish Launch

The capital will go toward industrialising the technology, preparing a commercial launch in Spain next year and supporting wider commercial expansion, including critical raw materials recovery. "We are entering Seamoretech's next phase with a clear ambition: to scale our technology, accelerate our market entry," Delgado said. She added that the company aims to lower the cost of freshwater production, establish a European reference in critical raw materials recovery and help protect marine ecosystems.

Why It Matters

Desalination leaves behind concentrated brine that has to go somewhere, and much of it ends up in the sea. Seamoretech is trying to recast that waste stream as a feedstock, recovering more freshwater from the same intake while extracting minerals such as lithium and copper. The company itself frames part of the opportunity as critical raw materials recovery, a priority it ties to building a European reference in the field.

The install-in-place, no-upfront-investment model is aimed squarely at the adoption barrier for plant operators, who are unlikely to halt production or commit capital to test unproven equipment. Running alongside existing infrastructure without downtime is the core of that pitch.

With only a first closing done, no customers disclosed and performance figures still self-reported, the planned Spanish commercial launch will be the real test of whether the economics hold at commercial scale, and of how the second closing comes together.

Source

Startup Rise — Seamoretech Raises €1.1Mn to Turn Desalination Waste into Freshwater and Critical Minerals