Oxyle Raises $16M to Fight Water Contaminants, with 99% Destruction

Swiss-based startup Oxyle has raised a $16 million funding round to scale its breakthrough solution for eliminating PFAS, toxic "forever chemicals", from wastewater. This builds on its $3 million pre-seed round in 2022, bringing its total funding to $26 million, including grants and awards.

The seed round was led by 360 Capital, with participation from Axeleo Capital and returning investors Founderful and SOSV.

PFAS contamination is a growing global crisis, with these chemicals present in water supplies due to their use in non-stick pans, firefighting foam, and industrial applications. Existing solutions such as filtration and adsorption only relocate PFAS to other waste streams, necessitating costly incineration or landfilling that risks reintroducing these chemicals into the environment. While destruction technologies exist, their high energy demands make them impractical for large-scale adoption.

Oxyle's system is the first economically viable and permanent PFAS destruction solution. Its modular three-stage process, foam fractionation, catalytic destruction, and real-time machine learning-based monitoring, achieves over 99% elimination rates while using 15 times less energy than alternative destruction methods. Unlike traditional solutions that require weeks-long lab testing, Oxyle’s system provides real-time feedback for continuous optimization.

“Five years ago, Oxyle was two of us founders and one big idea: get rid of forever chemicals from our water," recounted Dr. Fajer Mushtaq, CEO and co-founder of Oxyle. "Today, that idea is proven, implemented, and ready to scale. This funding is a game-changer. It gives us what we need to take our technology to the industries and communities that need it most. To our investors, old and new, thank you for joining us on this mission to make clean water a reality for all.”

Oxyle was co-founded by Fajer Mushtaq and Silvan Staufert at ETH Zurich. Mushtaq, inspired by her experiences with water scarcity in Delhi, earned her PhD in Micro- and Nanosystems focusing on water remediation. Staufert completed his PhD in Mechanical and Process Engineering. Understanding the urgency of PFAS contamination, they developed a solution capable of degrading these chemicals in minutes and worked to transition their breakthrough from lab to commercial reality.

In just four years, Oxyle has grown to a team of 26, completed over 20 customer projects, and received recognition such as the Swiss Technology Award, SEIF, and WEF's Uplink Top Innovators. The company has revenue-generating customer pilots and an operational commercial installation, with multiple-year treatment contracts lined up for 2025 and beyond.

Oxyle aims to treat 100 million liters of contaminated water within the next five years. The company plans to expand across industries including chemical manufacturing, consumer goods, semiconductor production, and municipal water treatment, ensuring lasting protection of global water resources.

With rising PFAS-related lawsuits and stricter EU and U.S. regulations, industries urgently need cost-effective compliance solutions. The Forever Lobbying Project estimates PFAS cleanup in Europe alone could reach €2 trillion over 20 years.

"Unlike traditional methods that merely contain these harmful chemicals, Oxyle's solution destroys them permanently, setting a new standard for tackling this urgent environmental crisis," commented Thomas Nivard, Partner at 360 Capital.