ALGAMA

Their core work

ALGAMA (formerly operating as Springwave) is a French food technology SME specializing in microalgae cultivation and its application as a sustainable food ingredient at commercial scale. Their core work involves developing microalgae-based products for the food industry — converting algal biomass into consumer-ready food sources. In their more recent work, they have expanded into circular biorefinery models, using gaseous and liquid residues from the wine industry (CO2 emissions, winery effluents) as low-cost feedstock to grow microalgae biomass. This positions them at an unusual intersection: food biotechnology meets industrial waste valorization.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ALGAMA's trajectory is narrow but coherent: they began in 2015 with a straightforward food technology mission — proving that microalgae could be produced at scale and sold as food. That early project carried no sector-crossing keywords; it was a pure food startup feasibility test. By 2021, their second and larger project reveals a meaningful pivot: microalgae is no longer just a food source, but a platform for absorbing industrial waste streams from the wine sector. The emergence of keywords like "circular economy," "biorefinery," "carbon dioxide," and "winery liquid effluent" signals they are repositioning microalgae production as an environmental service as much as a food technology play.

ALGAMA is moving from pure food production toward circular economy applications — future collaborations are likely to involve agro-industrial waste streams, CO2 capture-to-biomass conversion, or biorefinery partnerships with wine, brewery, or fermentation industries.

How they like to work

ALGAMA has shown both faces of H2020 participation: they led a small SME Phase 1 feasibility grant as coordinator (Springwave2014), and later joined as a specialist partner in a larger Innovation Action (REDWine). This pattern — start small and solo, then integrate into larger consortia as a domain expert — is typical of food tech SMEs that develop a niche technology and monetize it through research partnerships. With 12 unique partners across 6 countries from just 2 projects, REDWine is clearly a substantive multi-partner collaboration where ALGAMA contributes specific microalgae expertise rather than general coordination capacity.

ALGAMA has built a network of 12 unique partners across 6 countries, almost entirely through their participation in REDWine — an Innovation Action that inherently involves a multi-country consortium. Their geographic reach is European, with a likely concentration in wine-producing regions given the project's thematic focus.

What sets them apart

ALGAMA occupies a rare niche: they are a commercial microalgae company with demonstrated experience on both sides of the value chain — producing algae-based food products AND using industrial waste as algae feedstock. Few food-sector SMEs can credibly sit at the junction of food ingredients, circular economy, and agro-industrial waste treatment. For consortium builders working on bio-based solutions, food sustainability, or wine/beverage sector decarbonization, ALGAMA brings proprietary microalgae production know-how that pure research groups typically lack.

Highlights from their portfolio

• REDWine
  Their largest project by far (EUR 386,765, running 2021–2025), REDWine is notable for its unusual combination of wine industry waste valorization and microalgae biomass production — a circular economy approach that gives ALGAMA a differentiated industrial application story.
• Springwave2014
  As coordinator of this SME Phase 1 grant (2015), ALGAMA demonstrated the commercial viability of microalgae as a large-scale food source — the founding thesis that all subsequent work builds on.