LeafyColl

About LeafyColl

Based in Cambridge, UK, LeafyColl is a biotechnology company founded in 2023 that is engineering a new generation of sustainable biomaterials. The company operates in the personal products and biomaterials industries, addressing critical flaws in the global collagen market, which has historically relied on animal sources like cows and fish, posing risks of disease, allergens, and environmental strain. Existing products marketed as 'vegan collagen' are often misleading, as they do not contain actual collagen but rather ingredients that claim to boost its natural production. LeafyColl was established by Dr. Ejaz Hussain, who has a PhD in synthetic biology and serves as CEO, and Dr. Saba Riaz, a life sciences PhD and the company's CTO. The founders, who hail from the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College London, were driven by the question of why collagen sourcing remained dependent on animals in an age of advanced technology. This led them to develop a proprietary platform that transforms edible plants into 'bio-factories' capable of producing genuine, bio-identical human collagen. The company's core technology, described as molecular farming, combines AI-driven protein design with advanced genetic engineering. This process allows for the scalable manufacturing of all types of collagen—from Type 1 to Type 3—that are structurally identical to human collagen. The resulting product achieves over 98% purity, is free from endotoxins, and is produced through a carbon-neutral method, offering a significant sustainability advantage over animal-derived and fermentation-based alternatives. LeafyColl's business model is primarily B2B, aiming to supply its high-purity, ethical collagen as a raw material to major brands in the skincare, healthcare, food supplement, and regenerative medicine sectors. The company is positioned to fill a significant supply gap in the US, UK, and EU markets, which are largely dependent on Asian imports, and taps into a consumer base where 75% are willing to pay a premium for ethical, plant-based alternatives. Having raised $253K from investors like Carbon13 and the Royal Academy of Engineering's Enterprise Hub, LeafyColl is moving to commercialize its technology. The platform is designed to be modular, with plans to expand beyond collagen to create a wide library of structural biomaterials for various industrial applications.