New Dawn Bio, a Dutch deep-tech startup that grows wood from cells in bioreactors, raised an oversubscribed €2.1m (about $2.4m) pre-seed round, announced in early June 2026. CapitalT led the round. Norrsken Evolve, Ontdekkers Group and angel investors including Jelle Prins also took part.
Pulse 2.0 and Startup Rise both reported the round; no valuation was disclosed, and neither reported earlier funding. EU-Startups carried the original report on the round, but its page could not be opened for this article.
“For the first time in history, we can grow premium wood directly into its final shape.”Tom Clement, co-founder and CEO, New Dawn Bio
What New Dawn Bio does
The company calls its product cultured wood. According to Green Queen's account, it multiplies tree stem cells and then guides them to thicken, harden and bond into interconnected tissue, giving them the same biological signals they would receive inside a trunk. Additive manufacturing lets the wood grow directly into the desired shape, rather than being sawn from a trunk.
Startup Rise said the approach combines cell biology, materials science, engineering and AI, and is inspired by cultured meat. Pulse 2.0 described the product as a premium, sustainable alternative that does not require harvesting trees.
Claims to treat with care
The company claims its wood grows in days rather than years, about 10,000 times faster than conventional forestry. Green Queen reported two further company estimates: that a shaped-wood process could cut cost of goods sold by 80%, and that producing wood this way could save up to 2.1 gigatonnes of direct emissions a year. These are company projections for a technology that has not yet been commercialised, and the sources did not give independent verification.
Tom Clement, co-founder and chief executive, said: "For the first time in history, we can grow premium wood directly into its final shape."
The team and what the money is for
New Dawn Bio was co-founded in 2024 by Clement and chief operating officer Kianti Figler, according to Green Queen. It is based in the Netherlands; the sources opened do not give a city. The team spans cell biology, materials engineering, physics and process engineering, and none of the sources opened gave a headcount.
The money will go to product development, expanding the research and development team, and what Green Queen described as a deep-engineering organisation that uses AI to speed up data analysis and increase throughput. Clement said the funding lets the company turn its breakthrough into a product that industries can actually use.
Janneke Niessen, founding partner at CapitalT, said cultured wood has the potential to transform entire supply chains while making a meaningful contribution to the planet.
Funding context
None of the sources reported an earlier round. As a pre-seed, it funds the stage between a lab result and a product, and the next milestone in the sources is turning the technology into something industry can use. Coverage in the sources describes the round as oversubscribed but gives no figure for demand or for what each investor contributed.
Company website: newdawnbio.com