UKFT member Solena Materials, a UK textile innovation company developing plastic-free protein-based fibres using AI design tools, has moved to a pilot facility in North Acton, London, as it works toward its first commercial product launch planned for 2028.

Solena presented its latest developments at UKFT’s Sustainability Conference, Innovation in Action, last year. The company is one of the first tenants at Imperial College London’s new innovation and advanced manufacturing site in WestTech London. The move follows a £5.1 million seed funding round in 2024 and supports its shift from laboratory research to pilot-scale production.

The facility provides dedicated lab and manufacturing space to develop and refine Solena’s protein-based materials and production processes ahead of industrial scale-up. With planned capacity of up to two tonnes of fibre per year, the site will support sampling and early supply to premium athleisure and luxury brand partners.

A spinout from Imperial College London, Solena has relocated from the Imperial Incubator to the I-HUB building at Imperial’s White City Deep Tech Campus, with support from the London BioFoundry. Remaining in London keeps the company connected to Imperial’s research network and the wider WestTech London cluster. The site is located in Old Oak within the HS2 Growth Corridor development area.

Solena Materials is led by CEO and co-founder Dr James MacDonald, who holds a PhD in structural biology from Birkbeck, University of London, and leads a multidisciplinary team spanning computational biology, synthetic biology and materials science.

The new facility will support continued development and scale-up of the company’s protein-based textile materials for fashion and performance applications.

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