Ep.33 TJ Mitchell, ARDA Biomaterials

“Imagine a Guinness X Gucci leather jacket!”This week on Profit Meets Purpose, TJ Mitchell, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ARDA Biomaterials, explains how they are turning beer waste into a scalable, plastic-free leather alternative.After completing a PhD in supramolecular chemistry at Oxford, Mitchell joined the startup accelerator Entrepreneur First, where he met his co-founder Brett Cotten. Leveraging Mitchell’s chemistry expertise, ARDA transforms proteins from waste grain from breweries into a material as strong and flexible as leather that is bio-based and plastic-free.From making two-litre samples in Mitchell’s kitchen to partnering with Beavertown Brewery on a limited run of cardholders, ARDA has scaled fast. The company raised £1.1m in seed funding led by Clean Growth Fund and secured an £800k Innovate UK grant, followed by a £4m round led by Oyster Bay, early investors in Oatly.Now part of AB InBev’s 100+ Accelerator, ARDA is running a paid pilot using waste grain from major global beer brands. The company envisions decentralised facilities co-located with breweries, turning local waste into local materials.Arda’s goal is to reach price parity with plastic leather, then undercut animal leather which would achieve circularity at industrial scale. “The first half of our process looks like a brewery, the second like a plastics plant,” he says. “That means we can scale fast without reinventing the system.”Website: https://arda.bio/ST Website: www.sustainabletimes.co.ukContact: [email protected]