New funding for Qualus
Irrus Investments, a syndicate of angel investors based in Ireland, has led a new funding round of £1 million for leather-sector technology provider Qualus.
Its technology is based on using polymer beads inside drums during the tanning process, which, it claims, can reduce water consumption by up to 40% and use of chemicals by up to 15%.
The technology emerged in 2014, after a company called Xeros had achieved some success in the laundry sector. It renamed its tannery-focused division Qualus in 2018 and completed the spin-off of Qualus in 2019.
After years of in-field trials at tanneries, the company says it now has “multiple customers transitioning all production to its system” and a strong pipeline of potential customers in Asia, Europe, and Latin America that have applied its technology at a pilot scale.
It said leather produced with the Qualus system is already in use by leading automotive, luxury goods and footwear brands.
Qualus said it would use the new funding to establish reference customers in Asia, Brazil, and Europe, to build an engineering centre in England to accelerate the development of its product portfolio and to raise awareness of its technology with automotive, footwear and luxury brands.
It said the “increasing pressure from consumers to lower their environmental footprint” that these brands now face would help it pique their interest in its polymer-bead system.
