Discovery to Impact at The University of Texas at Austin has invested $250,000 in NALA Membranes, a startup affiliated with the university that is advancing water purification. The company is developing a new class of chlorine-tolerant membranes for reverse osmosis industrial and municipal wastewater systems. This marks the fifth investment by UT’s $10 million Seed Fund, which supports promising startups built on University-owned intellectual property.
“We are thrilled to partner with NALA Membranes on their journey to transform the water filtration industry,” said Mark Arnold, assistant vice president for Discovery to Impact and managing director of the UT Seed Fund. “Their visionary approach to sustainability aligns perfectly with our investment philosophy, and we are confident that their innovative technology will have a profound impact on global water management.”
NALA Membranes was launched in 2018 by Judy Riffle and Sue Mecham. The company aims to develop cost-effective and sustainable solutions for producing clean water globally. It was formed around chlorine-durable reverse osmosis (RO) membranes invented by Riffle, a professor emerita at Virginia Tech, and Benny Freeman, a professor in UT’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering.
“We appreciate this investment from the UT Austin Seed Fund and for the long-running research collaboration with Dr. Freeman that led to founding NALA,” said Mecham, CEO of NALA Membranes. “This investment will support commercialization of our technology to advance our vision for a new class of durable membranes that will reduce the energy, maintenance and membrane replacement in advanced water treatment operations.”
The company’s patented materials and novel process address the global demand for abundant, clean and accessible water while reducing costs and lessening the negative impact of traditional RO operations. NALA Membranes is part of a larger group of top water innovators who are developing solutions to mitigate the global water crisis.
