The next-gen materials revolution: Crafting & Dressing responsibly with Faircraft

Announcing our investment in Faircraft - a sustainable, lab-grown alternative to animal leather.

Every once in a while at AFI Ventures we get the chance to meet with mind-blowing individuals that have such a powerful vision for their company that you get immediately excited by the prospect of their future achievements and realizations. This pretty much sums up our mindset when we first met Haïkel & Cesar in their first small laboratory at Evry’s Génopole, uncovering the prototype of what could become the future of the “leather industry” and more…

What’s up with leather?

Leatherworking has been around mankind’s history for millenniums if not more, with paintings tracing it back to 5000 B.C. Nowadays leather is massively found in many fashion products (bags, shoes, jackets…) using up to 80% of yearly production volumes (about 3 billion sq. meters) while also being found in furniture and cars.

Naturally, the stakes in the debate over leather are growing as the world of fashion recognizes the need to reduce its carbon footprint, and leather footprint is relatively large as far as materials go because of the emissions associated with animal agriculture estimated to be responsible for approximatively 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions and causing significant environmental degradation.

Environmental impact per type of material used in fashion (cradle-to-factory gate LCA)

Hence, leather finds itself at the very top of the environmental impact charts (by a lot) when compared to other fashion materials due to both its inefficient & resource-intensive farming practices as well as the harmful environmental impact of the chemical-based “tanning” process.

The process of tanning aims to stabilize the collagen or protein fibers in skins so that they actually stop biodegrading and can be used properly.

However, tanning processes rely on toxic chemicals that are harmful to workers and the environment. Although some leather makers deceptively mark their products as “eco-friendly,” turning skin into leather requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes, some of them cyanide-based. Most leather produced is chrome-tanned, and all wastes containing chromium are considered hazardous.

Arsenic, a common tannery chemical, has long been associated with lung cancer in workers who are exposed to it regularly.

Historically though and since the middle age, leather was tanned using plant-based tanning agents, however, the industry rapidly shifted to chrome-based tanning at the beginning of the 19th century as it reduced the tanning process length from a few days to a few hours only. Today about 85% of all leather produced worldwide is chrome-tanned.

But I only wear vegan leather, so that’s fine, right?

Sadly, most so-called “vegan” alternatives to animal leather are currently petroleum-based (so basically made out of plastic), which is not a particularly sustainable alternative since it’s also way less durable and needs to be replaced more frequently than real leather goods.

Tanning chemicals

Faircraft & why we invested

In the wake of lab-grown meat start-ups like Meatable or Gourmey, Faircraft has designed a sustainable, lab-grown alternative to animal leather aiming to address many of the environmental challenges around leather production and above all remove the need for animal slaughtering, without compromising on material quality and mechanical properties.

Lab-grown you said?

Faircraft leather is made out of bovine skin stem cells cultivated in a controlled lab environnement following a 3-step procedure:

Faircraft’s process

1. Scaffold prep: For the skin stem cells to grow in the desired way, Faircraft designs a silicon-based scaffold meant to serve as a mold in which cells will be able to divide in an adequate shape. The scaffolding is meant to be recovered/absorbed by cells.

2. Cellular Culture: Once the scaffold is ready it is being filled up by bovine skin stem cells that will then grow and divide following mitosis (cell division) cycles. Cells are continuously monitored and nurtured following a high yield cellular culture process until the scaffolding is completely absorbed and the leather skin is formed on it.

3. Tanning: Just like any leather, Faircraft’s leather requires to be tanned to anchor the putrefaction process. Thanks to its unique properties and plant-based tanning it requires up to 90% fewer chemicals.

The overall process lasts about 3 weeks from start to finish and generates 10 times fewer greenhouse gases and uses 99% less land, effectively preventing side effects like deforestation and eutrophication induced by mass cattle farming.

Other great benefits of Faircraft’s unique crafting process include unlimited customization potential, custom shaping as well as producing unflawed leather preventing additional waste during leatherworking.

Last but not least, Faircraft’s work on leather is paving the way for the next-gen materials revolution, rethinking the way we harvest and use resources to manufacture mass market-products. Innovating by combining expertise from cellular culture, material science, and tissue engineering.

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At AFI Ventures, we believe in a world where innovation is a tool for positive change, the foundation to building a sustainable balance between economic growth and positive impact.

We commit to empowering entrepreneurs standing at the intersection of ‘for-profit’ and ‘for-good’, reimagining fairer & more sustainable ‘2.0’s for every sector of the economy — because we believe in the power of well-intentioned entrepreneurs to drive the big changes our society wants & needs.