ABOUT REVOLTECH

• Revoltech is a materials science company from Darmstadt, Germany. Its material, LOVR, is a leather alternative and all-purpose surface material made from Hemp.
• The company was founded in the summer of 2021 by Lucas Fuhrmann (CEO), Montgomery Wagner (COO), and Julian Mushövel (CTO). According to the brand’s website, Revoltech started with “indignation. Seeing the disastrous ecological impacts of the textile industry.”
• Creating a completely plastic-free material from hemp fibres wasn’t easy. It took six years of research before Revoltech spun off into its own company from TU Darmstadt.
• The brand raised EUR 1 million (USD 1.08 million) in a seed round in May 2022, and is also supported by public German grants. In a conversation with PlasticFree, Fuhrmann said the company is in its second Research Corporation with TU Darmstadt—a German program of cooperation between public research universities and startups to use lab facilities and know-how.
• LOVR is a non-woven, single-layer material that can be used in fashion, footwear, automotive interiors, and furniture. Made using leftover stalks from CBD flower cultivation, the company is working with customers in all areas, but NDAs restrict further details at present. 
• The material degrades naturally in soil thanks to being made solely from nature's nutrients, but it won’t decompose in an industrial composting facility due to its thickness, durability, and the condensed timeframe of the process. 
• Fuhrmann stated the brand can produce two million square metres of LOVR per year at present. And when the patent on its manufacturing process is approved, the proprietary technology may be licensed. 
• LOVR has already won a number of awards, including an Innovations for Tomorrow Award 2022, the Advanced Materials Competition 2022, Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen Deutschland 2022, Science4Life Venture Cup 2022, Hessen Ideen 2021, and Hessischer Gründerpreis 2021.
• There are currently 11 employees on the Revoltech team, and the company is headquartered in Darmstadt.
• Revoltech is focused on circularity and creating 100% plastic-free materials that consumers can trust. Towards the end of our conversation, Fuhrmann had this to say: “I really like this initiative of no plastic [PlasticFree], especially in the sphere of leather replacements, [where] there's been a lot of greenwashing. A lot of people claim [to be] plant based, but then still use 'shitloads' of PU. We have a different approach...and this comes with a lot of challenges. When you face the realities of your customers, and what properties they want from a material, and you try to deliver all of it with purely non-synthetic components, it's very difficult. But we're up for the challenge, and hustling to get this done. It's necessary to inform people and promote honest product development.”