Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BacLEATHER (UPSCALE OF AN INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE BIOMATERIAL FOR THE LEATHER INDUSTRY)
Période du rapport: 2023-06-01 au 2024-05-31
Next-Gen Leather, S.L. is a startup company founded in 2022 by her CEO and founder, PhD Concha Garcia, that develops biotechnology processes to produce and commercialize high-performance, animal-free, and sustainable materials for the fashion, automotive, and home goods industries. The company has developed a next-generation material, BACleather, an eco-friendly material produced by microorganisms through an efficient and low-cost bio-production, based on static fermentation, and a proprietary process. The technology provides solutions to the main problems facing the leather industry: lack of sustainability, harmful for the environment and in risk to supply shortage. In contrast, our biomaterial - while having similar performances to traditional leather - is produced through a sustainable process, which is independent of animal agriculture, currently representing 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions; from tanning processes based on toxic and harmful; and from materials fossil in the case of synthetic leather. Moreover, BACleather, once its production is ready to scale-up, it will be available for any leather goods manufacturers located anywhere.
Since 2022, we are fighting for a position in a market dominated by a powerful animal leather industry, whose current dynamics must evolve once the next-gen materials enter in the market. We need therefore a strong communication and marketing strategy to increase the awareness and acceptability of our product from the customers and get a position in an oligopoly industry reluctant for a change. Only after reaching this point and de-risking the current production engineering process, we will gain credibility and attract further investment to scale-up the manufacturing process. Thus, the main goal of the Women TechEU project focuses on increasing the visibility of our company and the BACleather prototype among end-users, the public, and investors and therefore gain market acceptability.
Since 2022, we are fighting for a position in a market dominated by a powerful animal leather industry, whose current dynamics must evolve once the next-gen materials enter in the market. We need therefore a strong communication and marketing strategy to increase the awareness and acceptability of our product from the customers and get a position in an oligopoly industry reluctant for a change. Only after reaching this point and de-risking the current production engineering process, we will gain credibility and attract further investment to scale-up the manufacturing process. Thus, the main goal of the Women TechEU project focuses on increasing the visibility of our company and the BACleather prototype among end-users, the public, and investors and therefore gain market acceptability.
This project has been focused on increasing the visibility of our company and BACleather prototype among key stakeholders (end-users and investors) and the public in general. Thanks to the interaction with key stakeholders and their feedback on our prototype, the team became aware that BACleather still needed to be adapted to the requirements demanded by the market. Either the prototype needed to be adapted to fulfill the texture, dyes, resistance, or gumminess required by the brands from the luxury and automotive sector, or needed to be adapted to be compatible with the manufacturing line of the footwear industry so the material can be properly sued and glued in footwear manufacturing lines. Hence, based on the stakeholders’ feedback, in the last part of the project, we have been focused on the optimization of the post-fermentation process that delivers the finishing of the material to fulfill the requirements of the end-users entities.
Thus, the main outcomes of the project have been establishing the proper bonds with European luxury brands and R&D collaborators to advance the finishing of the prototype according to the requirements of the end-users and clients and attract their interest for future sales agreements. Also, we have increased our visibility to catalyze the investment in the company for scaling up the manufacturing process.
Thus, the main outcomes of the project have been establishing the proper bonds with European luxury brands and R&D collaborators to advance the finishing of the prototype according to the requirements of the end-users and clients and attract their interest for future sales agreements. Also, we have increased our visibility to catalyze the investment in the company for scaling up the manufacturing process.
In the next months, we will be scaling the engineering fermentation process in a pilot plant, which will be the first pilot plant in Europe for the production of nanocellulose-based material. While the fermentation process is currently optimized, the post-fermentation process that delivers the finishing of the material according to the requirements of the end-users is not yet optimized. Thanks to the interactions with key stakeholders (luxury brands, leather R&D centers, and one of the leading European tanneries) during the WomenTechEU project, we have received precise feedback to optimize the finishing of the prototype (texture, dyes, resistance, or gumminess). The efforts that we are currently making in the optimization of the post-fermentation process will lead us to scale up production in the pilot plant in 2025. Once we validate a pilot batch production, we will jump into the scale-up of a production plant of 1M square feet to penetrate the European Market and beyond. That said, during the WomenTechEU project we have increased market awareness paving the way to close future sales agreements with luxury brands and attract investors for the next financing needs of the company (the CAPEX to cover the production plant and the OPEX until breakeven - 2027).