Giraffe Bio has raised $6.4 million in seed funding to apply engineered biomolecules to copper mining. The company aims to help miners extract more of the metal from existing operations, addressing a looming supply shortfall.
The funding round comes as copper demand is expected to rise sharply, driven by AI data centers and electric vehicles. These technologies require significant amounts of copper for wiring, batteries, and infrastructure.
Giraffe Bio's approach is to create bespoke biomolecules that can improve extraction efficiency. The company says this could unlock additional copper supply without needing new mines, though the article does not provide technical details on how the molecules work.