ABOUT TÔMTEX

• Founded in September 2020, TômTex is a biomaterials company on a mission to create plastic-free and naturally biodegradable materials from bio-based waste inputs rather than fossil fuels.

• Based in Brooklyn, New York, the company consists of a small team of scientists, writers, and designers working at "the intersection of design, chemistry, and biology".

• The startup's self-titled textile, TômTex, is a 100% bio-based, non-woven material made from two key ingredients: seashell waste or mushrooms. TômTex is designed to be a drop-in replacement for synthetic and animal Leather.

• The versatile fabric is made by extracting a Cellulose-like fibre known as chitosan, which is dissolved and poured into moulds. It can be coloured with organic dyeing pigments, with no need for a backing fabric or tanning process. It contains no plastic, toxins, or petrochemicals.

• TômTex is said to be "fully biodegradable in a natural environment" with the help of soil's microorganisms, eliminating the need for an industrial composting facility. It can also be recycled by disassembling, melting, and reconstituting it into a new product.

• The closed-loop production model is said to use less water, energy, and land than synthetic and animal leather processing, and emits less carbon.

• The company was founded by Uyen Tran, who grew up in Vietnam witnessing first-hand the devastation caused by textile pollution, where synthetic and polyester garments are routinely dumped by Western countries.

• Following fashion design stints at Peter Do and Alexander Wang, Tran returned to graduate school in 2019 to study textile design at Parsons School of Design. Her time there culminated in a thesis exploring how waste materials such as coffee grounds could be used to create bio-based materials - a study which formed the basis of TômTex.

• The company's current CSO, Dr. Ross McBee, joined the company in 2021 to develop the material. In an interview in February 2022, McBee confessed to eating the material, showcasing its edibility to demonstrate how non-toxic TômTex is.

• In April 2022, the company closed its pre-seed funding round, raising a total of USD 1.7 million to scale its patent-pending technology and invest in further research. It began the process of relocating from a small lab to a larger pilot production facility in New York in the beginning of 2023.

• In September 2022, TômTex's fabric was revealed on the runway for the first time as part of Peter Do's S/S 23 collection. The fabric was used to create two "patent leather-esque" trousers and matching tank tops.

• TômTex will be commercially available in February 2024. The startup is initially looking to enter the luxury leather goods industry, but the fabric has many use cases, including sports equipment, footwear, clothing, and furniture. TômTex is already engaged with a sneaker brand, an athletic wear label, and a leather goods brand.

• TômTex has won several prestigious awards, including the 2020 Biodesign Challenge's Judges Recognition Prize, the CFDA Innovation Award, and the LVMH Innovation Award in 2022. Tran was also featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2022.