Bristol startup Ponda leads €2.76 million initiative to build UK wetland biomaterials supply chain

Ponda, the Bristol-based biomaterials company behind the plant-based insulation BioPuff, has received a €2.76 million (£2.35 million) grant to lead one of the world's largest wetland farming demonstrations supporting peatland regeneration. The grant, awarded by DEFRA's Farming Innovation Programme, will fund a 30-month project that includes establishing a 30-hectare demonstration site for growing typha (bulrush) and forming a consortium.

Led by Ponda, the consortium brings together J&K Barnard Farms, Liverpool John Moores University, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Finance Earth, and outdoor brand Berghaus. The goal is to demonstrate how productive wetland farming can generate environmental and economic value while helping establish a new UK biomaterials supply chain.

This follows Ponda's €2 million raise in 2025 and the launch of its crowdfunding campaign in April 2026. Including grants and awards, the company has now secured €5.6 million ($6.5 million) in funding.

Founded in 2020, Ponda develops regenerative materials for the textile industry. Its first product, BioPuff, is a plant-based insulation made from fibres extracted from bulrush grown on restored wetlands through paludiculture. BioPuff offers a renewable alternative to synthetic insulation and animal down, with the potential to reduce embedded carbon by up to 88% compared to goose down. It has already been used in products by Berghaus, Stella McCartney, Ahluwalia, and Sheep Inc.

At the core of the project is the idea that peatlands should not need to be drained to be economically productive. Paludiculture keeps wetlands wet, enabling them to continue storing carbon, recover biodiversity, and produce commercially valuable crops. Over the project's duration, the consortium aims to restore peatland at landscape scale, demonstrate typha yields of approximately three tonnes per hectare, avoid an estimated 15,000 tonnes of CO₂e emissions by 2050, and create new income opportunities for farmers.

Financial modelling by Finance Earth suggests the demonstration could begin generating commercial revenues within 12 months of project completion. According to the company, drained peatlands are among the UK's largest sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Rewetting through paludiculture can reduce emissions, improve climate resilience, enhance natural flood management, increase biodiversity, reduce soil degradation, and diversify farm incomes.