Leading the textiles industry to a toxic-free and circular future

About Us

It’s never been more difficult to enjoy the outdoors without polluting it. Working at the intersection of science, engineering and design, Amphico is paving the way to a toxic-free and circular textile industry.

OUR TEAM

Jun Kamei
CEO & Founder
Dr Louise Anderson
CTO
Isabella MacKenzie
Senior Textile Designer
Fergus Telfer
Senior Design Engineer
Claire Miller
Principal Textile Designer
Dr Aristeidis Tsiamis
Senior Materials Scientist
Haruka Kakuda-Sanins
R&D Coordinator
Dr Marco Binelli
Materials Scientist
Freya Tatham
Lab Technician
Dr Jordi Ferrer Orri
Principal Machine Learning Engineer
Dr Peihua Lai
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Dr Graham Bratton
Commercialisation and IP Advisor
Join the team

Join us on our material revolution. The first step
is a simple “hello”.

We are a combination of experienced scientists and designers, passionate about making the future a better place, both in creating materials that have a lower impact on the planet and in the improved performance of the products they facilitate.

Get in touch

MENTORS AND ADVISORS

Sir Jony Ive
Former Chief of Design, Apple Inc. Business Mentor
Hideshi Hamaguchi
CEO, Monogoto Inc.
Dr Nadia Danhash
Director of InnovationRCA Business Advisor
Prof Stephen Russell
Director of Future Fashion Factory, University of Leeds Technical Advisor
Anne Toomey
Head of Programme Textiles, Royal College of Art Advisor
Irene Maffini
Sustainable VC Advisor, PDS Limited Angel Investor and Advisor
Cat How
FOUNDER & CEO OF HOW&HOW
Prof Stephen Westland
Professor of Colour Science and Technology, University of Leeds
Selim Dusi
Chairman of the Board of Directors & CEO, Switel Angel Investor and Advisor

Jan 2017

Amphigill Conceptualised
Jun Kamei (Forbes30Under30) first prototyped the original artificial gill as a response to rising sea levels during his master’s project at the RCA after studying Applied Chemisty at Tohoku University.

NOV 2018

Amphico (Formerly Amphibio) Founded
The company was founded by Jun, who remains as CEO today, in the InnovationRCA start-up incubator. 

JUL 2019

Pre-seed funding secured
InnovationRCA and VENREX invested, and Graham Bratton joined the team as Head of IP and Commercialisation.

JUL 2020

Grant Funding
Amphico was awarded a Defense Accelerator Grant and an IUK grant to develop a physical gill to enable humans to breathe underwater for longer.

jun 2021

Growing Team
Dr Deana Tsang, Dr Hatim Cader, Nadia Bassiri and Kate Webster joined the team as Material Scientists, Lead Design Engineer and Textile Designer. They were quickly followed by Fergus Telfer, Isabella MacKenzie and Claire Miller who joined as Design Engineer, Lead Textile and Colour Designer, and Innovation Material Specialist.

SEP 2021

 A summer of awards
Amphico is awarded crQlr’s Best in Industry Prize, named one of Hello Tomorrow’s Deep Tech Poineers, attends the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2021 and was selected as a finalist in the Mass Challenge 2021.

APR 2022

Winner of the Terra Carta Design Lab 2022
Amphitex was chosen as one of four winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab, launched by HRH King Charles and Sir Jony Ive as part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

AUG  2022

Amphicolor Begins
Prototyping using off-the-shelf polymer formulations to colour our in-development mono-material yarns quickly proved that we were developing a solution to the much broader problem of traditional water-based dyeing methods. Initially innovating to solve our own challenge has evolved into a standalone offering - a new type of colouration system for textiles.

NOV 2022

COP27
Amphico exhibited at COP27 with the SMI Initiative. 

DEC 2022

More awards
Amphitex was awarded the Brandnew Special Recognition award at ISPO 2022 and the Ray of Hope Prize from the Biomimicry Institute. 

OCT 2023

Bigger and better
Dr Aristeidis Tsiamis, Miki Abraham, Nami Yatagai and Henry Parkin all joined the team and we settled into our lab and studio space at Makerversity.

FEB 2024

Everloop Capsule Collection
Everloop collection by PDS Ventures, Positive Materials and Petratex featuring an Amphitex jacket and trousers was launched at Premiere Vision in Paris.

2025

Kering Award
We were delighted to be recognised by the Kering Group and its luxury brands such as Gucci, YSL, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen with runner up in the prestigious Kering Generation Award.

2025

2 Layer Amphitex
We are on track to meet our goal of finishing the laminated two layer system of Amphitex face fabric and membrane by winter 2025/26.
Stronger together
Trusted by our partners
"I will always support innovation like AMPHITEX to disrupt the outdoor performance textile market so that we do not become complacent as an industry. AMPHITEX is a great example which helps re-establish British design and material innovation."
Charles Ross
Specialist in Performance Sportswear Design & Sustainable Matters FRSA
"FFF and UoL have been working with Amphico, both via FFF Responsive R&D funding and IUK awards since 2020. Having helped to take the startup’s original waterproof breathable textile fibre and turn it into a viable product, we are thrilled that this innovative technology is gaining impetus through the application of Amphitex™, which has exciting ramifications not only for Amphico's own collections, but as a sustainable alternative to be used in a range of outerwear pieces."
Susan Rainton
Future Fashion Factory (FFF) Programme Manager
"As part of a Future Fashion Factory R&D project, Dr Mark Taylor, Dr Ioana Taylor and I were able to assist the Amphico team to support the early-stage commercial development and physical testing of the new Amphitex product. Amphico is now collaborating with large retail brands, as well as trialling methods of recycling Amphitex for the production of new products. It's really good to see the progress that Amphico has made in building its new business and creating an exciting new product to replace traditional WWB membranes."
Prof. Stephen Russell
Director of the Nonwovens Research Group and the Centre for Technical Textiles at the University of Leeds

You can be part of this

Let’s do better, one season at a time.

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