Jan 28, 2024

Share A female-founded hardware startup has secured fresh funds from an influential group of investors in an oversubscribed seed round. Dion Georgopoulos Melbourne plant-based leather startup Alt. Leather has banked $1.1 million from Tesla chairman Robyn Denholm’s family investment firm, Wollemi Capital Group, and LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, a Victorian government-funded start-up body that backs women-led startups. Australia’s largest start-up accelerator, Startmate, also tipped in alongside GAZMAN-owner and fashion wholesaler The Austin Group and strategic angel investors. Alt. was targeting $750,000 but upped the limit to $1.1 million after receiving a flurry of interest. The round kicked off in October and wrapped up by Christmas. Alt. founder Tina Funder launched a vegan handbag label LOM Australia in 2022 using cactus and apple leather but is now looking to take on the carbon-intensive animal and petroleum-based synthetic leather market with Australia’s first 100 per cent plant-based leather. The material uses a combination of waste streams and regenerative plant derivatives. Advertisement “With major brands like Tesla, Apple and Stella McCartney announcing bans on the use of animal leather due to environmental impact and the world transitioning away from fossil-fuel-derived synthetics, there is increasing global demand for circular leather alternatives across multiple verticals including fashion, footwear, furniture, automotive interiors and more,” the company told Street Talk. Alt. will use the funds to file its provisional patent, kick off small-scale sample production with a range of Australian brands and gain access to university-housed advanced equipment and student researchers. Wollemi Capital, which is led by Denholm’s daughter Victoria, recently took a stake in personal styling service Threadicated, as reported by the Australian Financial Review . Chief executive and founder Danielle Johansen launched the business in 2019. Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. Email Sarah at sarah.thompson@afr.com Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column. Email Kanika at kanika.sood@afr.com.au Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review. Connect with Emma on Twitter . Email Emma at emma.rapaport@afr.com Save