{"id":139274,"date":"2024-02-22T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=139274"},"modified":"2024-02-19T13:37:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:37:25","slug":"alt-leathers-1-1-million-seed-round-marks-a-new-era-in-australian-bio-based-textiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/alt-leathers-1-1-million-seed-round-marks-a-new-era-in-australian-bio-based-textiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Alt.Leather\u2019s $1.1 million seed round marks a new era in Australian bio-based textiles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Melbourne plant-based leather startup Alt.Leather has successfully closed an oversubscribed seed funding round, raising $1.1 million. The round was led by family investment firm Wollemi Capital Group and joined by\u00a0Launch Vic\u2019s Alice Anderson Fund<\/a>,\u00a0Startmate<\/a>, and The Austin Group.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"ALT.Leather
ALT.Leather founder and CEO, Tina Funder. Source: Supplied<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Founded by Tina Funder, Alt.Leather was shortlisted<\/a> in SmartCompany<\/em>\u2019s the Pitch \u2014 an early-stage startup competition \u2014 in Melbourne in 2023. The company initially set a fundraising target of $750,000 but raised the bar to $1.1 million in response to strong investor interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funder previously launched the vegan handbag brand LOM Australia in 2022, which utilised materials such as cactus and apple leather. Her ambition quickly grew to become Australia\u2019s first 100% bio-based leather alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI tested many of the biobased alternatives on the market and couldn\u2019t find a suitable material that was petrochemical-free. Given the current climate, it felt like a significant commercial opportunity with the benefit of a positive environmental outcome,\u201d Funder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alt.Leather is not only animal-free, but it also contains zero plastics and utilises agricultural waste to make textiles. The idea is to disrupt the $70 billion plastic leather industry with 100% Australian, ethically sourced ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s millions of tonnes of fossil-fuel-derived plastic that we can eliminate from the world, the impact we can have is enormous,\u201d Funder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s a huge goal, considering the amount of waste the clothing industry creates<\/a> globally. According to statistics, 1.92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally every year, and the industry\u2019s global emissions are currently set to increase by 50% by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alt.Leather\u2019s material combines various waste streams and plant derivatives. It offers an eco-friendly alternative to conventional animal and petroleum-based leathers, aligning with the rising global demand for sustainable and circular economy solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must act swiftly and creatively to address global emissions and reduce the impact we have on our climate and planet. The creativity of entrepreneurs like Tina Funder helps us reimagine a world where we can enjoy beautifully crafted goods in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way,\u201d Victoria Denholm, Wollemi Capital Group CEO, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds from the seed round will be used to propel the company forward, focusing on filing a provisional patent and initiating sample production in collaboration with Australian brands. It will also be placing resources into advanced research and development for its product.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne plant-based leather startup Alt.Leather has successfully closed an oversubscribed seed funding round, raising $1.1 million. The round was led by family investment firm Wollemi Capital Group and joined by\u00a0Launch Vic\u2019s Alice Anderson Fund,\u00a0Startmate, and The Austin Group. Founded by Tina Funder, Alt.Leather was shortlisted in SmartCompany\u2019s the Pitch \u2014 an early-stage startup competition \u2014 in Melbourne in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":139296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Alt.Leather\u2019s first 100% bio-based leather alternative contains zero plastics and utilises agricultural waste to make textiles","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5842,10416,17663,12468],"supplier":[23593,23592,23594,23595,9169,23596],"class_list":["post-139274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biomass","tag-circulareconomy","tag-fakeleather","tag-textiles","supplier-alice-anderson-fund","supplier-alt-leather","supplier-startmate","supplier-the-austin-group","supplier-capital-group","supplier-wollemi-capital-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139274"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=139274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}