The blue of almost every pair of jeans comes from synthetic indigo, made from oil-derived chemicals. Synovance, founded in 2017 in Bry-sur-Marne east of Paris, set out to make the same molecule with engineered bacteria fed on sugar and waste biomass: identical dye, no oil, no toxic intermediates.
The European Innovation Council granted €1,947,888 towards a €2.78 million project to scale that production. According to the French court record, Synovance stopped being able to pay its debts on 1 August 2024, six months before the project ended. It entered receivership on 9 July 2025 and was placed in liquidation on 22 July 2025.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Synovance SAS, SIREN 830 992 137
- Founded
- 2017, Bry-sur-Marne, France
- President
- Brian Jester
- Product
- Bio-produced indigo and other textile dyes
- EIC project
- NextGen Dyes, 1 Feb 2022 to 31 Jan 2025, closed
- Funding type
- Blended finance (grant plus equity option)
- Insolvency
- Receivership 9 Jul 2025; liquidation since 22 Jul 2025
- Liquidator
- SELARL JSA
What Happened to Synovance
The registers Pappers and Societe.com record the sequence. The court opened receivership (redressement judiciaire) on 9 July 2025 and fixed the cessation of payments at 1 August 2024. Thirteen days later, on 22 July 2025, it converted the case into liquidation, the route French insolvency law reserves for cases where recovery is manifestly impossible. The liquidator's statement of creditors' claims was filed on 14 September 2026. Synovance's accounts had been filed confidentially, so the size of its debts is not public.
The Technology: Dyes From Microbes
Synovance's method, as described on CORDIS, was to use computational and genomic tools to engineer bacteria that turn sugar, salts and waste feedstocks into dye molecules, then purify them into products "aniline-free and environmentally friendly" with the same dyeing performance as synthetic dyes. Aniline, a toxic chemical, is a starting material in conventional synthetic indigo. The company's own materials, reported by the textile press, claimed its bio-based dyes emitted ten times less CO2 than conventional synthesis.
The approach is not unique: Sourcing Journal has covered several start-ups pursuing bio-based dyes. Synovance's distinctive claim was its "Synthetic Genomics Platform", which the project report says cut both the time and cost of developing production strains more than tenfold.
What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
NextGen Dyes ran from 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2025. The objective said the company would sell indigo blue first to dyeing houses and fabric makers, then a full range of colours, and claimed its "top-seller sustainable dye" already held a 50% market share, a figure given without any indication of which market. The final report, updated on 23 May 2025, describes an integrated pilot plant, then a larger demonstration facility for continuous operation, and the strain-engineering platform. It reports no sales, customers or production volumes, and it does not mention that the company had been insolvent since August 2024.
- Pilot and demonstration productionReportedPilot plant and a larger demonstration facility described in the CORDIS report.
- Commercial indigo salesNo evidenceNo customer, volume or revenue published.
- A going concern at project endFailedCessation of payments fixed at 1 August 2024; liquidated in July 2025.
- Transparent reporting to the EUIncompleteThe May 2025 report is silent on the insolvency.
The Sequence
What the public cannot see
The court record shows that Synovance was legally insolvent for the last six months of an EU-funded project, yet the project was reported as completed with positive results. Whether the EIC knew, whether the final grant payment was made, and what the creditors, including any public ones, will recover are not public. The liquidation file will answer some of that; the EIC has not.
Why Europe Should Care
A European, bio-based source of the world's most used denim dye would reduce dependence on petrochemical supply chains. That makes Synovance's failure worth studying: the EIC backed a relevant technology, and the company still ran out of money before it could sell at scale.
What the project promised
Oil-free, non-toxic textile dyes made by microbes, starting with indigo and scaling to a full colour range.
What the record shows
A pilot and demonstration facility, no published sales, insolvency during the project and liquidation six months after it ended.
The Verdict
A technical project, a failed company
Synovance may well have made the technical progress its report describes. It did not survive to use it. The more troubling part is the reporting: a closing summary that reads as a success, published ten months after the company had become insolvent. The EIC's credibility depends on its records telling the public what actually happened to the money.
Synovance and its liquidator have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and EU project data, linked throughout.
