While leather is considered to be ethical since the source of hides is from animals already in the food chain, the leather production process is both chemical and water-intensive, and the byproducts of tanneries have significant environmental ramifications. While vegan leather is being touted as a more sustainable alternative, vegan alternatives use plastic compounds that are petrochemical-based and dependent on fossil fuels. TomTex, a Brooklyn-based biomaterials startup, has developed a leather alternative that’s both ethical and truly sustainable. The company uses a proprietary process that extracts a biopolymer, chitin, from the shells of discarded seafood and mushrooms and then combines this with coffee grind waste to develop a near-leatherlike textile that can be customized to customer requirements. The resulting materials are all durable, 100% biodegradable, plastic-free, and do not require tanning or chemical-intensive dying. TomTex, founded in 2020, is refining its formulations and process, scaling its production capacity, with plans to launch an MVP mid-year with its first commercial products available in September.
AlleyWatch caught up with TomTex CEO and Founder Uyen Tran to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $1.7M in a Pre-seed round. SOSV led the funding round, joined by Nucleus Adventures Capital, C3 Ventures, CRCM Ventures, Gaingels, Portfolia, and Chasing Rainbow.
Tell us about the product or service that TomTex offers.
TomTex, is a startup offering revolutionary, plastic-free biobased material created from shell seafood waste or mushrooms waste as a sustainable alternative to leather.
What inspired the start of TomTex?
I started TomTex based on my experience in textile pollution and leather manufacturing just a few blocks from my home in Vietnam. Look around us, materials are the starting point for everything. I believe that materials fundamentally have a great impact in our everyday lives and lifestyles. At TomTex, we envision a world where people surround themselves with high-performing materials, sourced directly from waste, not from fossil fuels.
How is TomTex different?
We aren’t replacing leather, we have something even better. Our material always surprises people by how close it feels to leather. It’s also durable, holding up to industrial sewing and fabrication. It’s versatile; we’ve created a near-endless array of colors and finishes using 100% natural substance.
Additionally, we can customize texture, thickness, density, and three-dimensionality to meet our customers’ requirements. You cannot attain this with animals. You also cannot grow an animal to a height of any shape and size. We can achieve this through our technology.
What market does TomTex target and how big is it?
TomTex’s first market will be the luxury leather goods industry valued at $74B according to a 2022 Statista report.
TomTex foresees its potential applications in other industries such as consumer electronics and automotive
What’s your business model?
First and foremost, TomTex will go B2B by building the following revenue models:
Wholesale and Retail: TomTex Material Purchases
Project Partnership: Brands partnering with TomTex to create collections using TomTex
Targeted clients here are luxury fashion houses, textile wholesalers and distributors.
Second, TomTex will go B2C, with a focus on e-Commerce offering the following revenue models: single purchase and annual subscriptions.
What are your post-COVID office plans??
Wet work and scale up development of course can’t really be done from home, so we spend a good amount of time in person in our current lab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and as we transition to new, larger spaces. However, we are quite flexible – if the work does not require access to benches or machines, we work from home or wherever convenient, flexibility is a must-have at this stage!
What was the funding process like?
We reached out to investors who are within our networks and are interested in investing in sustainability companies. We sent our deck and asked if they would give us an opportunity to pitch to their team.
After pitching, we did a lot of due diligence meetings and emails to answer any questions from the investors such as technology, operations, business models, etc.
The final step is to review the terms with them and sign the investment agreement.
We also needed to be active to approach other investors who might not be familiar with the industry but want to explore and also foreign investors who want to expand their portfolio in the US.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
We are in the biomaterial industry and there were many pitch meetings that were done over Zoom, and it was a challenge to showcase our materials to investors, especially for oversesa investors.
We are in the biomaterial industry and there were many pitch meetings that were done over Zoom, and it was a challenge to showcase our materials to investors, especially for oversesa investors.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
I would like to say my dynamic team, technology, and tractions.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
R&D: We are continuing to iterate on our formulation and process, looking to achieve MVP for leather goods and accessories by mid-2022. We are also laser-focused on building scale quickly, looking to 10x our production capacity by the end of the year.
Business: We focus on generating new partnerships with large Fashion houses and work with new suppliers in the US and Asia to guarantee the supply chain for our production. Also, we are working with our current partners – NYC-based brands to develop and showcase our initial collaboration by September 2022.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
First, have a detailed budget for your operations and try to stick with it. Then, be creative about what other free resources the local government offers and be open to reaching out to non-US investors.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
I believe that materials fundamentally have a great impact in our everyday lives and lifestyles.
At TomTex, we envision a world where people surround themselves with high-performing materials, sourced directly from waste, not from fossil fuels. With that vision in mind, we plan to develop viable next-gen biobased materials that offer a sustainable, accessible, and practical alternative to currently available commercial material options in the near future.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
We love Miss Ada – Mediterranean food in Brooklyn.
