Faircraft acquires VitroLabs assets in effort to dominate lab-grown leather market

French biotech Faircraft has announced acquired key assets from VitroLabs, a California-based startup also working to create lab-grown leather. The move is designed to fast-track the industrialisation of in vitro leather production, as the nascent sector moves closer to commercial maturity.

VitroLabs has demonstrated its cultured leather in high-end applications. With a focus on tissue engineering, VitroLabs has also developed a portfolio of 30 international patents covering core innovations in multi-layered skin cultivation, cellular scaffolding, and scale-up methods for cell growth.

Faircraft has focused on bridging biotechnology and materials science to create sustainable alternatives for the fashion and leather goods industries. The company operates out of Paris, lending access to to the luxury houses that dominate global fashion. By acquiring VitroLabs’ intellectual property, Faircraft now claims a reinforced scientific foundation and a clearer pathway toward commercial-scale production.

Faircraft is backed by investors such as Kindred Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, Cap Horn, Bpifrance, and Entrepreneur First.

“This acquisition represents a real strategic turning point for us: we are now the leader in the production of high-quality in vitro leather, and will now move into a new phase of industrialisation. Our objective is clear: to make in vitro leather a mark of prestige for the world’s leading fashion houses," said Haïkel Balti, co-founder and CEO of Faircraft.

With plans to open its first full-scale production plant within two years, Faircraft is preparing to respond to what it describes as growing demand from luxury clients seeking sustainable materials that do not compromise on quality or aesthetics. Its Paris R&D lab will play a central role in process optimisation, compliance with sustainability standards, and traceability - key priorities for fashion brands under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact.

The deal also marks a consolidation of intellectual capital in a competitive but still-emerging segment of the biomaterials market, where few have succeeded to industrial readiness. 

Photo by La Compagnie Robinson