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By Agroempresario.com
Arda Biomaterials, a UK-based startup transforming spent barley from breweries and distilleries into sustainable, leather-like materials, has raised a $5.25 million seed round to scale up production and expand into the fashion and automotive industries.
The round was led by Germany’s Oyster Bay Venture Capital, with participation from existing backer Clean Growth Fund and new investors Kadmos Capital and Green Angel Ventures. With the funds, Arda will open a new facility in London that is five times larger than its current space, enabling the production of significantly higher volumes of its flagship material: New Grain.
Based in London’s Bermondsey Beer Mile—home to dozens of craft breweries—Arda collects spent grain, a byproduct of beer and whisky production, and applies proprietary supramolecular chemistry to extract proteins from the barley. These proteins are restructured to mimic the fibrous properties of animal leather, resulting in a plastic-free material that can replace both leather and its synthetic alternatives.
“We’re bridging the upstream—breweries and distilleries—with downstream industries like fashion and automotive,” said Brett Cotten, cofounder and CEO of Arda. “This approach enables enormous scale and very low unit economics.”
According to Cotten, working with just one large brewery like AB InBev could yield 5 to 10 million meters of material per facility, enough to cover a sizable share of the leather market. The company estimates that reaching just 1% of the global leather market (about 20 million meters annually) would require only a few such co-located sites.
Arda is currently seeking a small group of strategic partners, particularly in fashion, to collaborate on product development by the end of 2025. The company is already producing enough material for pilot collaborations, having teamed up with London-based brand BEEN London to launch a grain-derived snakeskin handbag last year.
Arda has also joined the 100+ Accelerator, a six-month innovation program co-sponsored by AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, and Unilever. Participating startups receive $100,000 in funding, mentorship, and support to develop pilot projects. Arda is currently sourcing grain from AB InBev facilities in and around London.
“We’re thrilled to be working with AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer. It’s a big opportunity for us,” said Cotten. The startup is testing various grain profiles to assess their suitability as feedstock. For instance, stout grains like Guinness yield a dark, rich material due to roasted tannins, while lighter beers like IPAs produce brown tones—eliminating the need for traditional tanning.
Unlike other alternative materials that rely on animal skins, mushrooms, or biomass, Arda’s formulation is built from the ground up. This allows them to customize elasticity, strength, thickness, and texture to meet various industry needs.
By skipping the tanning process, Arda also reduces its chemical usage and carbon footprint, streamlining its supply chain and cutting down on environmental impact. While the company is currently focused on fashion, Cotten sees automotive applications as the ultimate test for material performance.
Despite growing investor interest in climate tech, Cotten admits that fundraising wasn’t easy. “We thought the market hit bottom in late 2022, but this latest round was even tougher. There’s a lot of hesitation from VCs—but once one signs, everyone tries to jump on board.”
Now with fresh capital, Arda plans to make consumer-facing products with New Grain available in limited release later this year, while also laying the groundwork for a full-scale production facility ahead of a Series A round.
By targeting industries with massive material demand and integrating waste from global beverage giants, Arda is poised to become a key player in the next generation of circular, bio-based materials.
