Business Wire

QORIUM

Share
Qorium Lands Additional Funds From Brightlands Venture Partners and Sofinnova Partners, as the Company Sets out on an Ambitious Growth Drive for Sustainable Leather, With the Appointment of CEO Michael Newton

Qorium, the world-leading cell-cultured leather company, today announces a series of significant milestones in its journey towards commercial scale. The firm has secured investment from breakthrough VC’s Brightlands Venture Partners and Sofinnova Partners, marking a significant vote of confidence in the future of sustainable, cell cultured leather production.

The company further confirms today that to steer the company through this next exciting phase of growth, Michael Newton, the former Nike senior executive, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

Newton joins a founding leadership team that boasts cell-cultured meat pioneer Mark Post as Chief Scientific Officer. Widely recognised as the leading voice in cellular agriculture, Post stunned the world by producing the first cell-cultured hamburger in 2013, following which he co-founded Mosa Meat to bring the product to market. Post joined forces with leather industry veteran Rutger Ploem and sustainability entrepreneur Stef Kranendijk to drive Qorium’s pioneering development of viable, quality lab grown sustainable leather.

Michael Newton said, “As soon as I met Mark, Rutger, Stef and the team at Qorium, I knew this was going to be the perfect fit. Qorium is founded on the conviction that when tradition and talent meet cutting-edge science, true category transformation can happen. My years at Nike were all about innovating product to unleash human potential; I'm thrilled to be taking this next logical step, where incredible science can deliver a truly sustainable future through high quality, excellent products that consumers covet."

Guillaume Baxter, Principal at Sofinnova Partners, said, “Our mission is to identify ground-breaking innovations that have the capacity to enhance planetary health while also offering substantial returns. Qorium is an ideal match for our industrial biotechnology investment platform: a world-class leadership team, proven tech, and a real product with the potential to transform a whole industry for the good of the planet.”

Olga Goor, Investment Manager at Brightlands Venture Partners, added, “We’re thrilled to have Sofinnova Partners join us as key investors in Qorium. Qorium has made impressive progress over the last two years, and we are convinced that the addition of Michael alongside with both BVP’s and Sofinnova’s deep expertise, knowledge and relationships in this space will only further accelerate Qorium’s development.”

To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240110867558/en/

About Business Wire

Business Wire
Business Wire
101 California Street, 20th Floor
CA 94111 San Francisco

http://businesswire.com
DK

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Thredd Powers Successful Migration of BigPay’s Card Portfolio to Next-Gen Platform26.11.2025 09:00:00 CET | Press release

The transition of millions of cards showcases Thredd’s superior capabilities amid a high-stakes, global trend of sunsetting legacy processing engagements Thredd, the leading next-generation global payments processor, has successfully migrated BigPay’s virtual and physical card portfolio from its previous, legacy processor to Thredd’s next-generation platform, underscoring Thredd’s leadership in complex card portfolio migrations. The migration project, one of several in recent years, included over 2.5 million cards and highlights Thredd’s unique combination of deep migration experience, robust processes, and advanced technology—qualities increasingly critical as the industry faces a wave of modernisation and replatforming. This achievement comes at a pivotal moment for the industry. Industry analysts estimate that retail banks failing to modernise could see 10% to 15% of their payments revenue at risk annually as legacy platforms struggle to keep pace with demands for hyperpersonalizati

With Two in Five Employees Undergoing Fertility Treatment Leaving Their Jobs or Considering Quitting, Are Companies Doing Enough?26.11.2025 08:00:00 CET | Press release

An international survey, spanning Australia, France, Japan, Poland and the UK, has found that many employees experiencing fertility challenges lack support in the workplace, with almost two in five (39%) leaving or considering leaving their roles while undergoing treatment.1 ‘The Impact of Fertility Challenges at Work: International Insights’ survey by Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Fertility Matters at Work and This Can Happen shows that, despite growing awareness of reproductive health, two thirds (67%) who have experienced fertility challenges say that their workplaces do not offer support for employees undergoing fertility treatment, with France the least likely to provide it (88%).1 60% said they were not clearly entitled to time off for fertility appointments, with time recorded as paid leave, unpaid leave or annual leave (26%), and some also reported taking sick leave due to a lack of flexibility (17%).1 With assisted reproduction therapy, including IVF, already accounting for up to 1

Venture Global and Tokyo Gas Announce 20-Year LNG Sales and Purchase Agreement26.11.2025 01:00:00 CET | Press release

Venture Global’s fourth long-term contract with a Japanese company7.75 MTPA of long-term contracts signed by Venture Global to date in 2025 Today, Venture Global, Inc. (NYSE: VG) and Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd announced the execution of a new, long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA). Under the SPA, Tokyo Gas will procure 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG from Venture Global for 20 years, starting in 2030. This deal marks 7.75MTPA of SPAs signed by Venture Global in the last six months. “With nearly 8 MTPA of new long-term commitments signed this year, Venture Global is pleased to build on our commercial momentum through this new partnership with Tokyo Gas,” said Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel. “Tokyo Gas is a pioneer in the LNG industry and leading provider of natural gas to Japan, and we look forward to working with them as we grow our position as a top LNG supplier to Japan. This agreement will contribute significantly to the US-Japan balance of trade o

Airship Study: No-Code Native App Experiences Double Purchase Frequency (+140%), Offering Path to Profitable Holiday Growth26.11.2025 00:08:00 CET | Press release

New research quantifies the massive conversion lift from optimizing native app and web experiences, providing a critical no-code path for retailers to drive profitability Mobile-first customer experience company Airship today released new aggregate data analysis findings showing that no-code native app experiences significantly increase conversion for key lifecycle events and more than double purchase frequency. The Airship "Experience Impact” research, which studied over 1,000 in-app retail experiences and 1.7 billion device sessions, quantifies the impact of optimizing end-to-end customer journeys—not just sending messages—using no-code and AI-powered tools to drive loyalty and retention at scale, leading to sustainable profitability in a volatile economic environment. Key Findings Customers exposed to high-impact no-code native app experiences such as optimized onboarding flows, dynamic surveys, or embedded personalized offers, purchase 140% more frequently than app customers who do

Court Finds That Two Advanced Cell Diagnostics Patents Are Not Infringed by Molecular Instruments’ Proprietary HCR™ RNA-ISH Technology25.11.2025 17:30:00 CET | Press release

Molecular Instruments, Inc. announced today that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) of the European Union has found that Molecular Instruments’ HCR™ RNA-ISH technology does not infringe two patents owned by Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Inc. (a Bio-Techne group company). In a 2024 lawsuit filed in the UPC (proceedings no. UPC CFI 187/2024), Advanced Cell Diagnostics alleged that Molecular Instruments’ HCR™ RNA-ISH technology infringes European patents (EP) 2,500,439 and 1,910,572. The Court in its judgment of 18 November 2025 has rejected that claim and dismissed all of Advanced Cell Diagnostics' lawsuit, ruling that the patents are not infringed either literally or by equivalence (UPC Judgment). This 2025 UPC judgment follows on the heels of an April 2024 UK judgment in which the High Court of England and Wales had already dismissed an earlier infringement lawsuit by revoking the UK parts of the same two Advanced Cell Diagnostics patents (proceedings no. HP-2022-000026), ruling that they wer

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye