Process
How is your material made?
We collaborate with microbes to form our materials. We use an impressive microbe called bacterial nanocellulose which is grown during the fermentation of a particular strain of bacteria, K.rhaeticus. The nanocellulose is formed around a yarn scaffold that is made with engineering and advanced textile production techniques, resulting in a non-woven textile that is lightweight, durable and has high tensile strength.
Are the materials made out of 100% bacteria?
We incorporate bacterial nanocellulose with other natural ingredients and have a proprietary formulation. The final product and all additives (including the yarn scaffold) are biobased and the product and process for the undyed material is petrochemical free.
Impact
Is your material recyclable or naturally biodegradable?
The bacterial nanocellulose we use in our material is naturally biodegradable. We complement our nanocellulose with natural and non-harmful ingredients wherever necessary. We are also designing our formulations, dyeing and finishing chemistries with recycling in mind. Recyclability is a common challenge with making biobased materials bioresistant and durable because you need to add certain chemistries to the natural ingredients – for this reason we are generally working with “green” chemistries to maintain recyclability.
Is the material ‘alive’ and/or is it vegan?
No, the material is not alive. The bacteria is alive when it is fermenting to create the nanocellulose, but the bacteria is washed out of the finished material. This leaves the nanocellulose in the structure but removes the living bacteria. Our material is considered vegan because it is produced without any animal-derived ingredients.
What is your material replacing?
Our textiles have the potential to displace a variety of materials including textiles like leathers, synthetic leathers, coated textiles and other materials. But we are not just innovating with one material – we are developing a customisable platform which can create new forms of textiles that are biobased and have a significantly lower environmental footprint than materials derived from animal or petrochemicals.
What are some of the other environmental benefits of your materials?
Research indicates that the carbon footprint of our materials should be a fraction of that produced by animal & PU leather production. Our materials have huge potential to displace significant amounts of emissions in the fashion industry. Beyond the carbon footprint, our materials will use a fraction of water and land usage compared to animal leather, for instance. These environmental benefits will further amplify as we scale our operations.
What is the Positive Luxury Butterfly Mark and why is it important?
The Butterfly Mark is a recognised certification awarded to brands that demonstrate a measurable and positive impact on people and the planet. It signifies that we meet rigorous, evolving standards for environmental and social performance, going beyond industry norms. This provides our partners with assurance that we are dedicated to leading the way in sustainable practices. While we are proud of our current achievements, we recognise that sustainability is an ongoing journey. We are committed to continuous improvement, adapting to rising standards and implementing innovative solutions to further reduce our environmental footprint.
Partnerships
How are brands and partners responding to your material? Have they shown interest?
We’ve had a positive show of interest from the fashion industry, particularly regarding the versatility and customisability of our platform. We’re working with a number of brand partners and are currently focused on the luxury and sportswear space, though we are starting to expand in other markets. Whilst we cannot share who we are working with at the moment, we are excited to share more when the time comes.
When will your material be commercially available / when is the first product coming out?
We’re working on some exciting projects at the moment, and look forward to sharing more publicly soon
Who is your current investor/Investors today?
To date, we have raised $11 million in Seed funding round from investors such as Extantia, Artesian, AgFunder, Collaborative Fund, Acequia Capital, Petri Bio and Parley for the Oceans amongst others. You can read more about it on our news page.
How can I get in touch with Modern Synthesis about a partnership opportunity?
You can email collaborate@modernsynthesis.com or click here.
Hello and welcome to the Modern Synthesis website terms of use (Terms)
Thank you for visiting. These terms and conditions (Terms) set out the rules for using our Website and all our owned linked sites which you can access through visiting us at https://www.modernsynthesis.com/ (Website).
About Modern Synthesis https://www.modernsynthesis.com/ is a website owned and operated by Modern Synthesis, trading as Modern Synthesis, (“we”, “us” and “our” and “Modern Synthesis”). We are a limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 12085226 and our registered office is at 12-13 Zennor Road, London, United Kingdom, SW12 0PS. Please feel free to reach out to us at any time – to do so, please email hello@modernsynthesis.com.
These Terms By using our Website, you confirm that you accept these Terms and that you agree to comply with them. Although we hate to turn you away, if you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use our Website. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our Website through your internet connection comply with these Terms.
Other Terms That May Apply To You These Terms also incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy, and any code of conduct we have linked on our Website from time to time, which also apply to your use of our Website. Our Privacy Policy can be found on our Website. These Terms govern visitors to our Website. More detailed terms and conditions of the service/products we provide may also be available via our Website and you will need to agree to those terms and conditions in order to fully benefit from our offering more generally.
Changes to these Terms We amend these Terms from time to time. Every time you want to use our Website, please check these Terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.
Changes To Our Website We may update and change our Website from time to time to update our blogs or similar, reflect changes to our products or our users’ needs and to our business priorities generally. We will reflect any relevant changes in these Terms, and if we feel it necessary, will try to give you reasonable notice of any major changes.
We May Suspend Or Withdraw Our Website Our Website is made available to all our users and visitors for free. We do not guarantee that our Website, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our Website for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.
Account Details If you choose, or you are provided with, a username, identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat that information as confidential. You must not disclose it to anyone else. We have the right to disable any username, identification code, password or other piece of security access information, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms. If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at info@modernsynthesis.com.
Using Material on our Website We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our Website, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world and all such rights are reserved to us. You may print off a copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our Website for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others (for example within your organisation) to content posted on our Website. However, when doing so, our status (and the status of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our Website must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of the content on our Website for commercial purposes without obtaining a license to do so from us first in writing. If you print off, copy or download any part of our Website in breach of these Terms, your right to use our Website will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made and sign a declaration that you have done so. In addition, you agree and confirm that we may be able to make legal claims against you for breach of our intellectual property rights, including without limitation, claims for damages, and claims for equitable relief, such as injunctive relief.
Information on our Website The content on our Website is provided for general information only. It is not intended to be advice of any kind for you to rely on. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or not taking (as the case may be), any action on the basis of the content on our Website. For example, we may write articles and blogs on our site, but they are for information only. The same principle applies to any newsletters or similar which you receive from us by email. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our Website, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our Website is accurate, complete or up to date.
User-Generated Content Our Website may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the Website which have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our Website do not represent our views or values. If you see anything which could in any way be deemed inappropriate or offensive, please contact us immediately to info@modernsynthesis.com so that we can take appropriate action at our discretion.
Bugs and Viruses We do not guarantee that our Website will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our Website. You should use your own virus protection software. You must not misuse our Website by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our Website, the server on which our Website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our Website. You must not attack our Website in any way. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.
Your Linking to our Website You may link to our Website, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it – but you must let us know when you do so. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists. We reserve the right to require that you take down any link to our Website at our discretion, including where the link was created in bad faith in any way, or is intended to damage our business or reputation, or does so unintentionally. In particular, if the other Website where our Website is linked is one that we do not wish to be associated with, then we may order you to take that link down. If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact info@modernsynthesis.com.
Links to Third Party Websites We may link to third party websites but we are not responsible for the content on them or their functionality or safety. You must address any concerns, queries or complaints to those third party websites – but if links on our Website do not work, then please tell us.
Governing Law These terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Our Brand All brand names, logos, and other marks are the exclusive copyright and property of Modern Synthesis. You are not permitted to use them without our prior written approval.
Last updated: July 12 2023
Welcome to the Modern Synthesis Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy“).
At Modern Synthesis, we are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure, and handling it in accordance with our legal obligations. This Privacy Policy sets out in detail the purposes for which we process your personal information, what rights you have in relation to that information, who we share it with and everything else we think is important for you to be aware of. Please make sure you check it carefully and if you don’t agree with it, then unfortunately you shouldn’t visit https://www.modernsynthesis.com/ or its associated domains (our “Website“) or otherwise purchase or use our products, seek advice from our team or generally use our services (our “Services“). By using our Services, you confirm that you accept the way in which we process your personal information. This Privacy Policy forms part of our Terms, and capitalised words and phrases in it have the same meaning as those in our Terms. If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact us at hello@modernsynthesis.com or via https://www.modernsynthesis.com/.
About Modern Synthesis We are Modern Synthesis, trading as Modern Synthesis (and referred to as ‘Modern Synthesis’, ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ in this Privacy Policy). Modern Synthesis is a limited company incorporated in England and Wales, with registered company number 12085226 and registered address at 12-13 Zennor Road, London, United Kingdom, SW12 0PS. We are the data controller for the purposes of the personal information processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
About this Privacy Policy This Privacy Policy applies to the personal information we collect about you through our Services, whether in person, by telephone, by post, via our Website or any other digital products, through our social media platforms, from third parties and when you otherwise communicate with us. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time and, if it does, the up-to-date version will always be available on our Website. We will also tell you about any important changes to our Privacy Policy.
The personal information we collect, how we collect it, and why Personal information means any information about an individual from which that individual can be identified. The following shows information we process about you, and the purpose for which we process that information. There may be more than one reason for which we collect such information and we have only listed the main reasons. If you would like further information, please contact us at hello@modernsynthesis.com.
Basic Personal Information which you provide to us When you use or purchase our Services, we may collect some or all of the following basic information from you: First name, last name, postal address or home town/country, phone number, email address, date of birth, , username, password. We collect this information so that we can personally and uniquely identify you, address you, personally communicate with you as part of our Services, confirm eligibility for them, and where applicable, customise our Services for you.
Information we may collect automatically When visiting or using our Website or our Services generally, we may automatically collect some or all of the following types of information: Unique customer number, IP address (or equivalent trackers), records of customer interactions with our Services (e.g. purchase or use history), records of competitions, prizes and promotional offers, records of communications, social media information. We collect this information so that we can deliver a more personalised, tailored service, and so that we can continue to understand our customers and develop our Services over time. We may also use any or all of the above information to establish, exercise and defend our legal rights. In respect of all the personal information we collect, our overarching purpose is to enable us to deliver the best materials + products to our customers. We want all of our customers’ information to be secure, but also visible to us so that we can provide them personalised customer service and a customised experience.
Our legal basis for processing personal information We only ever use your information in line with applicable data protection laws – in particular, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR“) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA“) (together, the “Data Protection Legislation“). In short, this means we only use it where we have a legal basis to do so. Under the Data Protection Legislation, these are the general legal bases for which we process your personal information, as detailed in the table above:
When do we disclose your personal information? We may disclose your information for certain purposes and to third parties, as follows:
How long do we store your personal information? We keep your personal information for only as long as is necessary to provide you with our Services and for our legitimate and necessary business purposes. Such purposes might include maintaining the high standards of service which we strive to uphold, making decisions on how progress our offering, complying with applicable legal obligations, and resolving any disputes which arise in the course of our business. In accordance with this Privacy Policy, you have the right to request that we delete your personal information, except where we are legally permitted or required to maintain certain personal information. For example:
Security of your personal information We are committed to securing and protecting your personal information, and we make sure to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to help protect the security of your personal information. We implement policies to guard against unauthorised access and unnecessary retention of personal information in our systems. The information that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). When we transfer and store your personal information outside of the EEA we will take steps to ensure that the information is transferred in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. In particular, we will ensure that appropriate contractual, technical, and organisational measures are in place with any parties outside the EEA such as the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the EU Commission. Unfortunately, the transmission of your personal information via the internet is not completely secure and although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to us over the internet and you acknowledge that any transmission is at your own risk.
Links Our Website (or any other digital products we may operate) may contain links to websites operated by third parties. This Privacy Policy only applies to the personal information that we collect from you and we cannot be responsible for personal information collected and stored by third parties. If you follow or click on a link, please understand that the relevant third party websites have their own terms and conditions and privacy policies, and we do not accept any responsibility for the content of those third party websites or third party terms and conditions or policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal information to these websites.
Children You must be 13 years of age or older to use our Services. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 13 years of age. If you are under that age limit, then please do not use Modern Synthesis or provide any personal information to us. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a child under the applicable age limit, and you become aware that your child has provided his/her personal information to us, please contact us at hello@mod-synth.com. If we learn that we have collected personal information of a child under the age of 13, then we will take all reasonable steps to delete that information from our systems. In any case, we will only process personal information in line with GDPR and our legal obligations.
Your rights and choices Under the Data Protection Legislation, as a user of our Services, you are entitled to certain rights. There are circumstances in which your rights may not apply. You have the right to request that we:
stop processing your data if you have valid objections to such processing; and
For more information on your rights and how to use them, or if you would like to make any of the requests set out above, please contact us at hello@mod-synth.com. We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response. As explained in the section on Communications, you have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal information for such purposes. Please note that we reserve the right to charge a fee for responding to requests where we reasonably determine that they are manifestly unfounded or onerous or being made in bad faith.
Contacting Us If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us by email to hello@mod-synth.com. If you are unsatisfied with our response to any data protection issues you raise with us, you have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the authority in the UK which is tasked with the protection of personal information and privacy.
Cookies We may use cookies from third-party providers such as Google which help us monitor and understand how people use our site, and in turn to provide a more valuable browsing experience. You can choose to accept or turn off cookies within your browser settings.
General You may not transfer any of your rights under this Privacy Policy to any other person. We may transfer our rights under this privacy policy where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected. If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of this Privacy Policy (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of this Privacy Policy will not be affected. Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that, or any other, right or remedy. This Privacy Policy will be governed by and interpreted according to English law and if necessary, by the English courts.
Last updated 12 July 2023
Read on for the Modern Synthesis Grievance Policy.
Modern Synthesis is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and accountability. We recognise that concerns may arise, and we encourage stakeholders to report them. This policy outlines our grievance process to ensure concerns are addressed fairly and transparently.
A grievance can be raised by any stakeholder (including but not limited to clients, suppliers, community members, and employees) and may include concerns about:
How to raise a concern
Grievance Process Steps and Targeted Deadlines
All reported concerns will be thoroughly investigated. The investigation will be conducted fairly and impartially by an appropriate member of senior management. The following steps will be followed:
Protection from Retaliation
Modern Synthesis prohibits any form of retaliation against stakeholders who raise grievances in good faith. We have implemented controls to ensure that individuals who report concerns are protected from any adverse actions, including discrimination, harassment, or victimisation. Any individual found to have engaged in retaliation will be subject to disciplinary action.
Confidentiality
We will handle all grievances with discretion and maintain confidentiality to the extent possible. However, depending on the nature of the issue, it may be necessary to disclose information to relevant parties during the investigation process. We will inform the reporting individual if disclosure is required.
Amendments to the Process
This outlines the process to be followed in most instances. It should be recognised, however, that in certain situations, this process may need to be amended to accommodate the particular situation, and this would be discussed and agreed upon with the individuals involved at that point in time.
Last updated 9th April 2025.