Canberra enzymatic recycling company Samsara Eco has begun raising a $100 million Series B to extend its AI-designed enzymes from plastics into recovering rare earth metals, Forbes Australia reported in July 2026.
The move takes a company built on textile recycling into one of the most strategically sensitive supply chains in the world. Rare earths are essential to magnets in electric motors, wind turbines and electronics, and processing is heavily concentrated in China. Samsara believes the same protein design approach it uses on plastic can pull those metals out of old batteries, magnets and mine tailings. “Rare earth metals is a chance to solve one of the greatest geopolitical challenges of our time,” founder and chief executive Paul Riley told Forbes Australia.
How it works
Samsara Eco grew out of research at the Australian National University. Its AI platform designs enzymes, proteins that break materials apart. Applied to polyester or nylon textiles, they break the plastic back into the chemical building blocks it was made from, so the same material can be made again rather than downcycled into lower value products. The company started with PET and has since developed enzymes for nylon 6 and nylon 6,6.
The commercial business
Samsara opened its first full-scale facility at Jerrabomberra, near Canberra, in 2025. lululemon, also an investor, has a 10-year agreement with the company and released an enzymatically recycled nylon product in 2024. Activewear brand LSKD signed a 10-year deal in 2026. Samsara plans to open a plant in 2028 producing 20,000 tonnes of recycled materials for its customers, which Forbes Australia reported also include The Lycra Company.
The raise
Riley told Forbes Australia he was targeting the same $100 million the company raised in its Series A extension. Existing investors include Main Sequence, lululemon, Hitachi Ventures, Temasek, Titanium Ventures and DCVC. A critical minerals recycling pilot at Jerrabomberra is targeted for the first half of 2027. Riley said the technology would have applications in Europe and the US “from a circularity perspective with magnets and batteries”.
Jack’s take
Owning the AI that does the designing is the part that matters to me. Australia was never going to win on manufacturing scale, so controlling the core technology is a different game. The minerals pilot will show whether it travels beyond plastic.