French Cultivated Leather Startup Faircraft Secures €15M to Meet Demand for Ethical Materials
France’s Faircraft, a cultivated leather startup based in Paris, announces it has raised €15 million to expand its team and scale up operations to meet the increasing demand for sustainable materials. Faircraft was founded in 2021 by CEO Haïkel Balti, an engineer in materials science, and biochemist César Valencia Gallardo. Leveraging cell biology and unique tissue engineering techniques, they aim to offer a new class of materials with a lower …
Mark Post-Founded Qorium Unveils 35x35cm Cultivated Leather Sample as “Tangible Proof” of a Promising Future
Qorium, a Dutch biotech startup founded by cultivated meat pioneer Mark Post, has announced a significant milestone in scaling up the production of cultivated leather. Qorium’s platform combines specifically developed cultured cells with tissue engineering processes to create a product with the same strength, durability, and appearance as animal leather but without its environmental impact. Using a newly scaled-up tissue bioreactor, the biotech company says it has produced a 35x35cm …
Biotope Unveils Fifth Cohort Focused on Solutions for Leather, Food Waste, and Natural Colors
Biotope, a Belgian biotech incubator and early-stage investor, has revealed the three startups selected to be part of its fifth and latest cohort: Corium Biotech, I-Challenge, and Lantana Bio. Launched by the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), Biotope aims to bring agrifood startups to seed-stage readiness within 18 months, de-risking biotechnology investments to drive innovation in the biotech space. Annick Verween, Head of Biotope, shared: “Biotope focuses on potentially impactful …
Qorium: “Our Product Creates Consistent, Beautiful, and Easily Workable Leather”
Founded in 2014, Dutch biotech startup Qorium is developing cultivated leather to provide an ethical and sustainable alternative to animal leather with no compromises on performance. The company’s technology enables the development of leather alternatives with consistent quality and adjustable properties. The result is a premium material with dramatically reduced carbon emissions and waste compared to conventional leather. In 2021, Qorium raised €2.6 million to scale up its technology. The …
3DBT Receives £2.9M in Capital To Expedite Production of Cultivated Meat and Leather
London’s BSF Enterprise, a biotech company focused on lab-grown meat that wholly owns clinical and cellular agriculture company 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT), has raised £2.9 million via an oversubscribed placing at 17p/share, reports Vox Markets. BSF will use the new investment to provide working capital for 3DBT to accelerate its progress and increase its capacity to produce cultivated meat and leather using its serum-free media platform, City-Mix. Serum-free media, City-Mix Following …
DiCaprio Backed VitroLabs Appoints Industry Figures to Bring World’s First Cultivated Leather to Market
VitroLabs, which raised $46 million in a Series A from high-profile investors including Kering and Leonardo DiCaprio this May, has appointed a notable Board of Directors as part of its mission to create luxurious next-gen leather from cells. The San Francisco-based startup says it has been officially manufacturing its cell-cultivated leather in its pilot plant and that its R&D team is working on advancing its proprietary tissue engineering processes to …