A biomaterials start-up out of New York, Uncaged Innovations, has announced that it has raised US $ 5.6 million in a seed funding round. The company’s grain-based leather product will be on sale, and the money raised will be utilised to expand the team, which includes the manufacturing team.
CEO Stephanie Downs and CTO Dr. Xiaokun Wang launched Uncaged Innovations, a burgeoning next-generation leather firm, in New York in 2020. Uncaged has created a method that incorporates structural proteins from grains into fibrous networks using its technological platform, BioFuze. This technique produces a novel material that mimics the texture and properties of traditional leather.
The company claims that compared to traditional animal leather, its novel biomaterial leather emits 95 per cent fewer greenhouse gases (GHG), requires 72 per cent less energy and 93 per cent less water during production, and is entirely plastic-free.
Stephanie Downs, CEO and co-founder of Uncaged Innovations, said in a statement, “This funding round brings Uncaged another step closer to achieving our ultimate goal of disrupting every industry that relies on leather.”
