Faircraft raises €15M to scale lab-grown leather production

Faircraft, the maker of lab-grown leather, has raised €15 million in funding. 

The startup has developed a lab-grown material derived from animal skin cells that replicates the structure and composition of traditional leather through cellular agriculture processes. 

According to Haïkel Balti, co-founder and CEO of Faircraft, lab-grown leather represents a major evolution that goes far beyond the fashion industry, and uses cutting-edge technologies to honour ethical considerations. 

The company holds two international patents and has developed a proprietary, standardised process suited to scalability, conceived and implemented entirely in-house. 

Faircraft’s lab-grown leather has 90 per cent fewer CO2 emissions, 95 per cent less waste, and an 80 per cent reduction in water consumption.

While the cost of manufacturing Faircraft’s lab-grown leather is currently higher than that of traditional leather, the company aims to reach price parity with leather used widely in industry. 

This funding will enable Faircraft to expand its team, notably by recruiting more engineers and biologists, and accelerate its efforts to scale operations and address growing demand.

Kindred Ventures, Cap Horn, BPI, Blue Wire Capital, Sake Bosch, Entrepreneur First, Alliance for Impact, and Heirloom participated in the funding.