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 environmental impact, starting with “real leather without the animal.”
“Lab-grown leather represents a major evolution that goes far beyond the fashion industry and uses cutting-edge technologies to honor ethical considerations”
Kindred Ventures (USA), Cap Horn (France), BPI France, Blue Wire Capital (UK), Sake Bosch (Netherlands), Entrepreneur First (UK), Alliance for Impact (France), and Heirloom (USA), backed the startup’s sustainable leather in this round.
“Lab-grown leather represents a major evolution that goes far beyond the fashion industry and uses cutting-edge technologies to honor ethical considerations. It enables the creation of unique pieces with minimal environmental impact while offering new possibilities to leather artisans and designers. This technological breakthrough is a tribute to the magic of life,” Balti shared.
Outstanding touch and feel
Faircraft boasts an international team of 20 experts, eight different nationalities, and nine PhD holders who have developed a proprietary platform for cultivated leather. The process, developed entirely in-house, holds two international patents.
The “magic”, which starts with animal skin cells, is said to replicate traditional leather’s structure and composition, delivering a premium material with “outstanding touch and feel properties” but with a significantly reduced environmental footprint. Its production process emits 90% fewer CO2 emissions, generates 95% less waste, and uses 80% less water than traditional leather, claims Faircraft.
The biotech’s focus is now centred on scalability to reach cost parity with traditional leather to offer new possibilities to the fashion and leather goods industry and the major luxury brands the company is working with. Faircraft also collaborates with master tanners to perfect the finishing of the cell-based leather.
“While the cost of manufacturing Faircraft’s lab-grown leather is currently higher than that of traditional leather, the company is on a clear trajectory toward achieving price parity with leather used widely in the industry,” the company explained in an announcement.
