Modern Synthesis, a London-based startup, raised $5.5 million in a Seed 2 round led by Extantia Capital, with support from Artesian and Collaborative Fund. The funding will expand production at its pilot facility and service more brands, including a collaboration with Danish fashion brand GANNI. The company, founded by Jen Keane and Dr. Ben Reeve, creates biomaterials by combining nanocellulose with natural textiles, offering sustainable alternatives to traditional materials.

Fashion brands are desperately seeking new, sustainable materials as they come under increasing pressure to produce garments with improved environmental credentials, experts told the audiences of last week’s SynBioBeta conference in San Jose and Rethinking Materials in London this week.“A lot of people don’t realize how much the fashion industry needs new materials,” Jen Keane, founder of Modern Synthesis and a former designer for Adidas, explained on a panel at SynBioBeta. Her company has developed a microbial cellulose material to replace non-woven fabrics like leather. [Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Modern Synthesis.]“I think people don’t realize how many bags and shoes are actually made [on average in the fashion industry]. We’re talking billions and billions of tons of these [synthetic] materials produced every year. Most of them cannot be recycled, and it is all going to the landfill.”Many customers, said Keane, are now holding brands accountable for lowering their planetary impact. Brands in turn are starting to realize that “the majority of their impact is coming from their raw materials.”“There are things they can do in the short term, like move to renewable energy or shift to slightly better sources, but none of that’s going to solve the problem that they need new materials to actually bring [their climate impact] down in the long term,” she noted.Emma Hill, founder of sustainable fashion brand Damson Madder, speaking to AgFunderNews on the sidelines of Rethinking Materials this week, is also aware that materials are a significant source of the fashion industry’s carbon footprint.“I’m always looking for more sustainable materials and would use them tomorrow if they were available at the right price point