Munich It all started with his bachelor thesis that Lucas Fuhrmann wrote in 2015 for a fashion company that advertises sustainable clothing. It quickly became clear to him that customers were being sold “green fashion”, which largely consisted of synthetic textile fibres. “Not recyclable and made from fossil raw materials such as crude oil and natural gas,” says the 30-year-old.
The shirts made from organic cotton were not sustainable either. After all, cotton swallows huge amounts of water, and the delivery from far-away countries ruins the CO2 balance.
At first the native of Cologne was sobered. Then he said to himself: “There has to be a better way.” His search for materials that could be used to produce textiles in a really climate-friendly way led him to banana plantations in South America and Asia. He had already heard of “vegan leather” made from pineapple, apple or cactus fibers. But because the transport routes had to be short, the journey of Fuhrmann and his companions finally ended on German fields.
Seven years later, Fuhrmann holds a dark brown card holder, which can accommodate an ID card and Mastercard, into his laptop camera. “The material looks like leather, feels like leather, but consists of leftover hemp that nobody needs anymore,” says the entrepreneur with the neatly trimmed mustache proudly. “No cattle were skinned or oil burned for this.”
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With his former school friends, the business economist Montgomery Wagner and the mechanical engineer Julian Mushövel, Fuhrmann founded the biotech start-up Revoltech from the TU Darmstadt in 2020. They want to stir up the market with an imitation leather that is said to be completely vegetable and plastic-free.
The entrepreneurs want to stir up the market with an imitation leather that is said to be completely plant-based and plastic-free.
(Photo: Jan Schölzel)
If the process proves itself on an industrial scale, that would not only be good news for the winners of the Hessian Founders’ Prize. It would also help the climate.
It is estimated that the fashion industry accounts for ten percent of global CO2 emissions. That is more than international aviation and shipping emit together. In addition, the dyeing and finishing of textiles causes around 20 percent of global water pollution. Huge areas of jungle are disappearing in Brazil for the leather in car seats, shoes or upholstered furniture.
Investors believe in technological breakthrough
With the hemp brand “Lovr” – the acronym stands for “leather-like, without plastic, vegan, based on residues” Revoltech wants to replace petroleum-based artificial leather and animal skins today rather than tomorrow. The mission of the Darmstadt team is ambitious. Because for a material quality comparable to animal leather, manufacturers of vegetable leather alternatives usually cannot avoid plastic and chemicals.
Lovr, on the other hand, should be completely bio-based and fully recyclable and compostable. In any case, your investors believe that Revoltech could have made a technological breakthrough and transfer a seven-figure sum. The seed invest comes from the investment company B Value, which specializes in young industrial biotech and new materials companies, and two other start-up funds.
The B Value investment team consists of natural scientists with doctorates “with deep technological expertise,” says CEO Peter Kallien. “We looked at every corner of Lovr and compared it to almost every vegetable leather alternative on the market.”
The material should be completely bio-based and fully recyclable and compostable.
(Photo: Jan Schölzel)
Marie Kappen, investment manager at B Value, says, “Revoltech stands out because it is based on agricultural residues and does not contain any petrochemical ingredients.” Unlike Lovr, other plant-based imitation leathers are not recyclable because of their material mix. In addition, the production of the hemp leather can be scaled up excellently, since it is produced on rolls like paper.
In addition, hemp grows worldwide, which does not limit production to Germany. According to Kappen, scaling with mushroom-based imitation leather is more difficult. This is because the mushrooms are cultivated in a complex process.
Vegan shoes? “This is marketing”
The sporting goods manufacturer Adidas is nevertheless experimenting with mushroom leather and, together with the US start-up Bolt Threads, has manufactured the “Stan Smith Mylo” concept shoe. However, the sneaker did not go into series production. The group also describes other sneaker models as “vegan”. But that only means that no animal was processed. For example, the “vegan” Stan Smith sneaker also contains petroleum-based plastic, as a spokesman confirms.
“Of course, such shoes are not plant-based and therefore not biodegradable. You could just as well call cell phones or televisions vegan, that’s marketing,” says Andreas Heydasch, partner at the strategy and transformation consultancy Licennium. He advises companies in the textile industry on recyclability, including Revoltech for a short time.
>> Read also: Leather from mushrooms and the circular economy: that’s how it should be adidas become sustainable
The “Piñatex” from the British company Ananas Anam, one of the most widespread vegan leather alternatives, does not only consist of pineapple fibers. The company cooperates with over 1000 brands worldwide, including Hugo Boss, H&M, Hilton Hotel, Nike and Skoda. Ananas Anam makes it clear on the company website that Piñatex also uses synthetic materials and is therefore not “biodegradable”.
The car manufacturer Volkswagen has also become aware of Revoltech. Lars Lewerdomski from Group Innovation, who is doing his doctorate on textile material concepts, says: “I am not yet aware of any purely plant-based approaches that do not require petrochemical plastics. That makes Lovr very interesting for us.”
Car manufacturers are interested in the vegan material
The fact that the leftover hemp that the start-up uses comes from Germany prevents supply bottlenecks and high CO2 emissions due to long transport routes. So far, Volkswagen has been involved in the development of imitation leather made from apple and coffee residues. “Our goal is to use bio-based methods to produce parts of the interior such as car seat covers or door panels in the future,” says Lewerdomski.
A trend is emerging: away from animal leather. The Swedish carmaker Volvo already announced last year that it would completely do away with it by 2030. Instead, new materials such as the so-called “Nordico” should be used, which consists of old PET plastic bottles.
Fuhrmann puts the hemp card holder aside. He knows that when they get Lovr produced on a large scale and with quality materials themselves, all doors will be thrown open for them. At Revoltech, only 0.25 kilos of CO2 per square meter were generated, “while animal leather produces at least 70 kilos,” says Fuhrmann.
The founders want to be on the market with “a shoe product” in nine months. This will be followed by vegan sofas and textiles made from hemp and abrasion-resistant car seats that can withstand sweat and heat. Because after all the travel and years in the laboratory, Fuhrmann now knows: It really can be done better.
More: Rügenwalder Mühle’s veggie business is growing rapidly.