Firm backed by Zuckerberg set to create ‘real’ leather in a test-tube

FORGET lab-grown meat, a US company backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Li Ka-Shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, is developing lab-grown cow skin in a bid to disrupt the $100billion (£79billion) global leather industry.

Andras Forgacs, founder and chief executive of Modern Meadow, a USbased company, said the new technol- ogy would allow real leather to be produced at scale in a factory without having to raise or slaughter livestock.

Instead, the vegan-friendly leather will be made using a bioengineered form of yeast that will be brewed to produce bovine collagen, a protein found in the connective tissues of cows, the basic biological building block of leather.

“The opportunity is vast because the world of materials is vast,” he told The Sunday Telegraph in Helsinki. “Cows don’t come in the shape of a sofa or a handbag… So we can create a lot of efficiencies.”

He added: “This is not about creating artificial leather. It’s about taking what we love about natural materials and being able to enhance them.”

Since 2014, Modern Meadow has secured about $54million (£43million) in funding from some of the world’s biggest investors. They include Iconiq Capital, a San Francisco-based private wealth manager whose clients include Mr Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief.

Modern Meadow has already signed a deal with Evonik, a German chemicals company, to start producing the material at scale at a plant in Slovakia.

The company’s first product, known as Zoa, is “inspired by leather” and could be used for shoes, clothing, luggage, sporting goods or furniture. Mr Forgacs said the company was working with leading brands about partnerships to use the material in consumer products including clothing and furniture. “It will be a premium, luxury material,” he said, adding that it would be much more ethical and sustainable than regular leather.

“It’s not one material we are making but a technology platform for creating a broad range of materials designed for different purposes… depending on how we combine the proteins.”