OUR STORY
Why cotton? Why fashion? Who are you guys? We answer all your burning questions.
At its core, our mission is to make farmers the stewards of the land, give nature a voice and make cotton a real force for good.
And our ultimate vision? See fashion finally invest in farming and set the template for radical supply chain transparency across the world.
What we do is deploy a comprehensive approach to sustainable cotton farming that combines regenerative practices, hydroponic farming, service design, data tech and more.
We do this because we think cotton is a Wicked Problem — a unique, global systems problem that can only be solved by getting involved with every element of it. The way we farm impacts the planet more than we’ve been taught and told in our lives. And farming still forms the basis of how we make a lot of our clothes, yet farmers have historically been ignored, abandoned and exploited in any meaningful reform.
Clothes should clothe us and give us joy, not destroy everyone and everything around us in the process. It’s a pretty simple ideology that got us to figure out how to make it easier for fashion brands to change the building blocks of their supply chains.
2018 -2019
Edward Brial, Edward Hill and John Bertolaso met while studying Innovation Design and Engineering at Imperial College and RCA. While working separately at social impact startups, they began to grow cotton hydroponically in a dark basement in London. From this basement, they graduated to a greenhouse in Essex for their first big trial, having met Johnny — greenhouse expert and farmer extraordinaire. Materra was offically here.
2020-2021
With the support of Fashion For Good, Arvind, PVH and Kering, we launched our first big industrial hydroponics pilot in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in India. Kuldeep (Head of Environmental Ethics), Jignesh (Director), Alex (Head of Data) and Shivansh (Head of Legal) joined the dream team.
2022
A big year for us! We raised our seed round, started our regen program in Gujarat with a small number of farmers all while building our data and impact team in Ahmedabad, India.
2023
We went full steam ahead, expanding our regen program to 1000(!) farmers while growing our multidisciplinary team to more than 50. We announced first big brand partnership with Mango, while preparing for another big one — stay tuned!
We’re not going to shy away from saying we take a LOT of pride in our team who come from many different disciplines and perspectives. Our team of designers, engineers, agronomists, entomologists, and data analysts are always on the ground, in the fields, doing the hard work; we are not simply consultants or report-makers.
Ever-curious in nature (pun!), we love to debate, sip a cup of chai, discuss the meaning of life and obsessively talk about farming.
We ❤️: Chai, design thinking, Sudanese jazz-funk, chai, board games, chai, pani puri
We 👎: greenwash, endless growth, cultural appropriation, chai that’s the wrong colour, design colonialism, binary mindsets, monopolies, power inequalities
Press
We’re available for speaking engagements and interviews. For all press and media inquiries, drop us an email at info@materra.tech or download a copy of our press pack.
Careers
Want to join the gang? We’re hiring talented folks to come and work with us at our London and Ahmedabad offices. Check our our LinkedIn page and give us a follow to stay updated on new open positions.
LINKEDINGood Vibes Only
Follow us on Instagram! We’re fun, we promise.
Say Hi, Hola, Konichiwa, Salut!
We’re working with progressive brands, textile mills, farming collectives and non-profits to create meaningful change in the global cotton systems industry. Intrigued about our work or simply ready to get started on your regen journey? Drop us a line!
