Founding Spark
While completing their PhDs, founders Maria João Maia & Margot Muller visited Florida’s Everglades. This let them to uncover the harsh global reality of exotic leather production, specially the cruelty towards animals, ecosystem disruption, and devastating chemical pollution from tanning operations.
That pivotal experience inspired Lenera mission.
João Pinto
CCO
Maria Gonçalves Maia, Co-Founder
CEO
Margot Muller,
Co-Founder
COO & CBO
Lenera’s ambition is not merely to replace exotic animal leather, but to redefine the concept of luxury materials.
We aim to create biomaterials that are programmable, ethical, biologically authentic, and non-pollutive.
Our integrated platform paves the way for a new class of species-agnostic biomaterials. The convergence of biotechnology, automation, and design positions us to become the global reference in sustainable biomaterials.
We are pioneering the next era of high-performance, non-animal derived luxury biomaterials that are simultaneously circular and regenerative.
The Technology
The combination of biomaterials science, biotechnology, and automation has resulted in a unique innovation that is distinct from animal husbandry while not compromising the sensory and mechanical properties of real exotic leather.
Lenera’s system level approach, which combines a patented biological process with engineered automation reduces variability, times down cycling loops from years to weeks, allows for full customization and integration into tanneries while decreasing pollution levels by 80%.