Arda Biomaterials

Market position

Arda targets the leather and leather-alternative market, which UKRI cites at $73.3 billion in 2023 and projected to exceed $130 billion by 2030. The company's initial focus is luxury leather goods, where lower volumes and higher price points suit its early-stage capacity, with automotive described by the CEO as the highest-caliber longer-term target. Management frames its differentiation against large chemicals companies and fashion brands developing in-house materials that it characterises as plastic-loaded.

Management cites abundant, protein-rich spent grain as a low-cost and globally available feedstock that also gives breweries and distilleries an extra revenue stream; the ability to build material properties up from proteins rather than breaking down mycelium or hides, allowing tuning of elasticity, tensile strength, thickness and pattern; avoidance of tanning and of plastic, rubber and animal inputs; and co-location potential with breweries. UKRI reports Arda's claim of 2% of the carbon footprint of conventional leather, full biodegradability, lower water use and no toxic tannery chemicals. The CEO argues few sites are needed for meaningful scale, estimating one major-brewer partnership could yield 5-10 million meters of material from a single facility, against 20 million meters for 1% of the leather market.

Technology

Arda uses supramolecular chemistry, described as patented, to extract proteins from brewers' and distillers' spent barley grain and manipulate them so they mimic the fibrous structure of animal proteins found in leather, silk, wool and feathers, while eliminating the need for plastics and petrochemicals. The company states it uses nontoxic chemistry and no plastic, rubber or animal inputs, and that the resulting material is biodegradable and avoids tannery chemicals and microplastic shedding. Natural tannins carried through from roasted or lighter malts provide colour without tanning. Under a UKRI-funded collaborative R&D project with Queen Mary University of London and King's College London, Arda is developing a process to introduce sustainable protein fibres into the material to increase strength and usability.

Go-to-market

Arda works through collaborations and showpiece products with consumer brands and design studios to demonstrate the material, then aims to convert these into commercial supply relationships. As of the May 2025 round the CEO said the priority was securing a small handful of fashion partners by late 2025 or early 2026, supported by excess material output from the new facility, with limited consumer availability targeted for later in 2025. Corporate accelerator programmes (AB InBev-backed 100+ Accelerator, Diageo's Fusion Alterra) serve as channels to large brand partners.

Brands and manufacturers in fashion, retail and accessories (initially luxury leather goods), plus stated interest in footwear, automotive, furniture, beverages and beauty. Breweries and distilleries are both feedstock suppliers and potential partners, including for their own branded merchandise.

Geography

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom (64-66 Gedling Place, SE1 2JS), on the Bermondsey Beer Mile near London Bridge and Tower Bridge, with an earlier lab in west London and interim operations at Kernel Brewery. Feedstock is sourced from London-area breweries including Anheuser-Busch facilities. Investors include Germany-based Oyster Bay Venture Capital and London-based Kadmos Capital and Green Angel Ventures.

History

Founded in 2022 out of Entrepreneur First, Arda received initial EF investment in July 2022 and moved into a small west London lab. In March 2023 it raised £1.1 million, enabling it to hire a team and build a bespoke lab near the Bermondsey brewers; in October 2023 it received an Innovate UK grant that funded additional chemists and a collaborative R&D project with Queen Mary University of London and King's College London. In 2024 it publicly launched a snakeskin-pattern showpiece of BEEN London's Millais bag, and produced branded cardholders from Beavertown Brewery spent grain. In April/May 2025 it closed an oversubscribed US$5.25M (£4.05M) round led by Oyster Bay Venture Capital, joined the sixth cohort of the 100+ Accelerator, and began constructing a new ~5,000 sq ft facility on the Bermondsey Beer Mile, operating in the interim from Kernel Brewery. Collaborations announced for 2025 and 2026 include Stella Artois and Budweiser pieces via AB InBev's 100+ Accelerator, BEEN London's Calvert XL tote and a further bag, and whisky gifting pieces through Diageo's Fusion Alterra programme.

Risks & controversies

The CEO described the 2025 fundraising environment as harder than the 2022-23 pre-seed period, with limited VC urgency to issue term sheets. The company remains pre-commercial, with consumer availability only in limited volumes and full-scale co-located production deferred until after a future Series A. Environmental claims such as the 2% carbon footprint figure are company-stated. Reported details also conflict across sources: one aggregator lists two rounds totalling $6.3M with a different investor set (including Trellis Road, Plug & Play, Curiosity VC, Satgana and Serpentine Ventures) and an implausible employee band of 1001-5000, while primary sources describe a £1.1M/£4.05M sequence led by Clean Growth Fund and Oyster Bay Venture Capital.