Podcast: Estelle Clerc’s CellX fights forever chemicals with bacteria
Estelle is one of our portfolio company founders, and she joined Merle Zur in this recent Swisspreneur podcast. Estelle talks about the happy accident of discovering a solution against PFAS, the challenges of going from PhD research into entrepreneurship, and how amazing bacteria are.
From early on, Estelle Clerc was the strange girl at the party who was really passionate about bacteria. They’re a bit like children, Estelle describes: bacteria have their own lives and tend to do what they want. You need time to convince them to behave a certain way, but it’s worth the effort: bacteria can do amazing things, such as break apart forever chemicals.
Estelle is the CEO and co-founder of CellX Biosolutions, a company that develops bacteria that can break down PFAS. These chemicals are used in industrial applications such as Teflon pans, waterproof jackets, coatings, anti-stain products, and firefighting foams. They are also notoriously difficult to degrade, so they accumulate in the environment and human bodies.
CellX recently closed a CHF 1.7M pre-seed round, and they plan to raise a seed round for spring 2026. The company joined the Kickfund portfolio in February 2025.
Listen to the podcast for the full conversation!
---
This podcast interview is the second part in a series of podcast episodes co-produced by Kickfund and Swisspreneur. You can find the previous part here.
