Materials Science · Brooklyn, New York · Est. 2018
The Kintra Fibers wordmark - an 11-person team at 63 Flushing Ave, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Kintra Fibers makes a plant-based, biodegradable alternative to polyester - one that spins on the machines the textile industry already owns, then composts when it is done.
The Story
Polyester is everywhere - roughly half the world's clothing is made from it - and almost none of it goes away. Spun from petroleum, it lingers in landfills for centuries and sheds microplastic with every wash cycle. Kintra Fibers, a materials science company working out of Brooklyn, set out to change the raw material rather than the marketing around it.
Founded in 2018 by nanoengineer Billy McCall and operator Alissa Baier-Lentz, Kintra developed a synthetic fiber built on polybutylene succinate (PBS) - a polymer made from plant sugars such as corn and wheat instead of fossil fuels. The result behaves like conventional polyester: it can be melt-spun into yarn on standard equipment, matches PET's strength, and by the company's account is markedly softer. The difference shows up at end of life, where Kintra's yarns are engineered to biodegrade in controlled compost conditions.
The company describes its mission plainly - to reduce pollution in the apparel supply chain. Its wager is that fashion will not trade performance for conscience, so it built a fiber that asks for neither compromise nor new factories.
"As a surfer and nano-engineer, McCall saw creating sustainable materials as a materials design challenge."
The Case
A third-party, cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment compared Kintra's resin to conventional PET. The company reports large reductions in both emissions and energy - the kind of numbers that move procurement teams, not just press releases.
Indexed to conventional PET = 100. Source: company-reported preliminary cradle-to-gate LCA.
~95% reduction reported. Figures are approximate and self-reported; independent, at-scale verification is ongoing.
The Edge
Kintra's yarn is melt-spun on the same equipment mills already run for polyester. Adopting it does not require a factory to retool - it removes the switching cost before asking anyone to switch.
The yarns passed ASTM D6400 / ISO 14855-1 tests for aerobic biodegradation in controlled compost conditions - a property conventional PET simply does not have.
Matches PET's tenacity while reportedly running about 10x softer, so brands are not asked to trade quality for sustainability.
"Co-founders Billy McCall and Alissa Baier-Lentz were united by a mission to reduce pollution in the apparel supply chain."
Products & Business
The proprietary, patent-pending bio-based resin - the upstream feedstock melt-spun into fiber, and the source of the LCA advantage.
A 100% bio-based, biodegradable yarn for knit and woven fabrics. Commercial spec reached 75d/72f, 1 DPF in 2025.
Woven and knit prototypes developed with partners, including a resin jacket produced with Paradise Textiles.
Kintra sells and licenses its resin and yarn to mills, manufacturers and brands, scaling through strategic pilots rather than selling to consumers directly.
Who uses it. Kintra's customers are apparel brands, textile mills and manufacturers. The company reports interest from more than 500 brands and manufacturers and active pilots with some of fashion's largest names - a striking pull ratio for an eleven-person team.
The Founders
Co-Founder & CEO
A nanoengineer trained at UC San Diego and former research scientist at Carbon, where he worked on 3D-printed functional polymers. A surfer whose concern over ocean plastic reframed sustainability as a materials design problem.
Co-Founder & COO
A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Worth "Worthy 100" recipient who has advocated for circular fashion at the UN, COP26 and SXSW - then returned to Brooklyn to help commercialize the fiber.
The Market
Kintra competes in the fast-moving field of next-generation fibers, alongside makers of recycled and bio-based synthetics such as Aquafil's ECONYL, Spinnova, Natural Fiber Welding and Newlight - and, most of all, against incumbent fossil-fuel polyester itself. Its differentiator is positioning: a drop-in replacement that targets performance parity and manufacturability rather than a niche natural material.
The pull is real but the road is long. Biodegradable synthetics still face questions of cost, at-scale verification and industrial-compost infrastructure. Kintra's deliberate march - lab bench, to one ton of resin, to commercial yarn spec - reflects the unglamorous middle where most materials startups stall.
The ~500,000-tonne annual ocean microplastic figure is a widely cited industry estimate for the problem Kintra targets, not a company-specific metric.
Milestones
Billy McCall and Alissa Baier-Lentz launch Kintra Fibers to build a biodegradable polyester alternative.
The team demonstrates its bio-based fiber technology at lab scale.
PANGAIA invests alongside Tech Council and FAB Ventures to co-develop 100% bio-based, compostable fabrics.
Closes Series A and launches a Fashion for Good pilot consortium with Inditex, BESTSELLER and Reformation.
Paradise Textiles unveils the first Kintra-fiber garment; the company exceeds one ton of resin and is named a top GreenTech company by TIME.
Achieves commercial yarn specification and secures manufacturing partners for market launch.
Funding
Led by H&M Group Ventures. Investors include BESTSELLER Invest FWD, Fashion for Good, New York Ventures, TRE Ventures, Tech Council Ventures and FAB Ventures.
Backed by Tech Council Ventures, FAB (Fab Co-Creation Studio) Ventures and PANGAIA - bringing total funding to roughly $10M.
Questions
A bio-based, biodegradable alternative to conventional polyester - a yarn built on polybutylene succinate (PBS) from plant sugars that spins on standard polyester equipment.
Its yarns passed ASTM D6400 / ISO 14855-1 tests for aerobic biodegradation in controlled compost conditions, meaning they break down under those conditions unlike conventional PET.
H&M Group led its $8M Series A; investors and partners include PANGAIA, BESTSELLER, Fashion for Good, Inditex and Reformation, with Paradise Textiles as a manufacturing partner.
Billy McCall (CEO), a nanoengineer and former Carbon research scientist, and Alissa Baier-Lentz (COO), a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, co-founded it in 2018.
A third-party cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment reported roughly 95% lower emissions and about 20% less energy use than conventional PET resin production.
Connect
Sources: company website, Fashion for Good, WWD, Forbes, Fashion Dive, Sourcing Journal, Crunchbase, PR Newswire and TIME. Figures such as emissions reductions and revenue are approximate and, where noted, company-reported.