The adoption of next-gen materials that are high-performance, animal-free, and environmentally preferable is key to shift the world away from reliance on unsustainable material supplies and practices. To this end, Material Innovation Initiative (MII) has continued to produce and share research, connect and engage, educate, and advocate. This is the fourth State of the Industry Report: Next-Gen Materials offered by MII, covering the year of 2023.
Most excitingly, the next-gen materials industry enjoyed a 10% rise in investment funding in 2023, showing significantly higher investments than the general market. Despite global VC funding falling 42% and deal count falling 30% to reach a 6-year low in 2023, funding for next-gen materials companies increased.
Other key takeaways from the report include:
- Multiple new sustainability laws and regulations are coming into force globally that are putting pressure on brands to make real change in sustainability. They, in turn, are big buyers creating the most demand for next-gen materials.
- The top 10 most funded next-gen innovators (2023) were mentioned in verified media publications worldwide 15k+Â times.Â
- The industry is currently in the Trough of Disillusionment according to the Gartner Hype Cycle but may come out of it faster than might be expected due to an upward trend in investments in the next-gen materials industry across 2023.Â
Enter your details below to uncover deeper insights on:
- The three key industry stakeholder categories.
- Expert predictions on trends, opportunities and risks.
- Rising Star innovator profiles
…and more!
UPDATE 03/04/24: In the process of compiling our list of next-gen material companies for analysis, we inadvertently missed 7 companies, many of which had received investment in 2023. We realized our mistake after the initial publication of the report, immediately checked all of our data, and updated the resulting data and analysis. The updated report is now available for download below. The good news: our mistake actually underestimated the number of companies in the industry by 7, taking the total from 137 to 144, and investment in the industry by 1.4%, meaning there was actually a 10% rise in investment funding in 2023. These results are even more promising than we had initially anticipated.