Bio-based leather alternatives drive the leather industry towards a circular economy – Steinbeis Europa Zentrum supported German Start-up with proposal writing

Melina Bucher is an ambitious start-up, located in Mannheim, striving to innovate the leather industry by advancing it towards a circular economy through bio-based leather alternatives. Conventional leather products cannot be recycled due to the wide range of plastic components used in coatings, adhesives, reinforcements, and padding. For her handbags made from 100% bio-based, plastic-free vegan leather-like material, Melina Bucher has already been recognized with the German Sustainability Award in Design and the PETA Vegan Fashion Award. However, further innovation and development require additional resources and partnerships.

€50,000 in funding for Melina Bucher

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum supported the company by advising on EU funding opportunities such as the cascade funding Up2Circ call and, in collaboration with Enterprise Europe Network partner TUTECH, the call’s coordinator, they assisted in preparing the proposal. The application was successful, securing a lump sum of €50,000 in funding for Melina Bucher. With this funding, the company can explore laser cutting and AI to reduce production waste. Additionally, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum initiated the company’s participation in a consortium that submitted a proposal for the CBE JU Call 2024 - RIA02 in September 2024. The consortium has yet to receive confirmation regarding the outcome of the application.

Step by step toward innovation

The start-up emphasizes a pressing need for innovation in the leather industry to develop towards a circular economy. However, developing creative solutions or new materials requires investments and partnerships and therefore Melina Bucher was looking for possibilities to receive funding to realize her ideas. In 2021 she got in contact with Steinbeis Europa Zentrum for the first time and received information about EU funding.

To better understand the needs of the start-up, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum first conducted an innovation analysis. Through their discussions, it quickly became evident that Melina Bucher primarily required financial support to further develop its ambitious plans and innovations and to scale up operations. Recognizing this need for funding, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum regularly advised the company on relevant Horizon Europe calls, as well as on less complex and time-consuming funding opportunities, such as the EENergy Call and Up2Circ, as the Steinbeis experts were well aware of the limited time and resources available to the start-up.

Melina Bucher chose to apply for both the EENergy Call and the Up2Circ call and Steinbeis supported them throughout the entire application processes. The application for Up2Circ was successful and resulted in securing €50,000 in funding.

Results and Impact

The 50.000 Euro Up2Circ funding enables Melina Bucher to realise some of their ideas for the development and production of vegan, plastic-free and bio-based leather goods aiming at a holistic circular economy. As part of the Up2Circ project, the company would also like to utilise advanced technologies (laser cutting, AI) in order to reduce production waste through less cuttings. Moreover, the start-up might get further funding through their role as a development partner in the project submitted under the CBE JU Call 2024 - RIA02. Even if the project does no receive funding the start-up could already establish some valuable contacts with consortium partners, paving the way for future collaborations.