Major partnership to meet the growing global demand for next-gen materials
NUERA, a wholly owned subsidiary of DESA, has signed a long-term, exclusive license agreement with GOZEN, the San Francisco based Turkish biotechnology company, for the production and global commercialization of the LUNAFORM™ biomaterial. Under the agreement, GOZEN’s LUNAFORM™ biomaterial platform and BioCraft biofabrication technology have been brought together with NUERA’s facility in Istanbul and DESA’s industrial manufacturing infrastructure. Established in August 2026 as part of DESA’s biomaterials strategy, NUERA will manage the research and development, product development, production, scaling and cross-industry commercialization of LUNAFORM™ under one roof.
As global demand for sustainable materials continues to grow, the partnership enables brands to work with a next generation biomaterial within a single, transparent value chain, while giving tanneries an entirely new organic material that integrates directly into their existing systems. Bringing the shared vision of GOZEN and DESA to life, NUERA opens the door to a new era across multiple industries with a model that grows, processes and transforms the material into finished products: adding new value to what already exists, rather than replacing it. The partnership is driven by the leadership of both companies: entrepreneur Burak Çelet, who has built DESA into an industry powerhouse, and Ece Gözen Akın, CEO of GOZEN, creator of BioCraft™, GOZEN’s core biofabrication technology, and inventor of LUNAFORM™.
Over the last year, they’ve flown around Europe together, meeting brands and understanding what luxury houses really need in a next-gen material. They’ve also spent countless hours in each other’s factory, openly sharing expertise from both their technologists and artisans. Through a close integration of talent and technologies from both DESA and GOZEN, the teams worked side by side, experimenting and overcoming challenge after challenge to bring the LUNAFORM™ platform to a level of performance ready for the world’s leading designers. Since starting operations this August, NUERA’s first commercial orders have come from Kering for the S|STYLE 2026 Wardrobe Edition, founded and curated by Giorgia Cantarini, powered by Kering. The project invited ten international designers to explore their own interpretations of the contemporary wardrobe through clothing, bags, footwear and accessories. Two of the selected designers, Ayham Hassan and Lorenzo Seghezzi, chose LUNAFORM™ to develop signature creations, each expressing a distinct creative vision through the material.
Ece Gözen Akın, inventor of LUNAFORM™ & Biocraft Technology and CEO of GOZEN, said:
“My vision in creating LUNAFORM™ was ‘A New World, A New Form.’ For me, this meant going beyond a new material to rethink our relationship with materials and the way we bring them into the world. As an entrepreneur, I have learned on this journey that creating a new material is not enough on its own. A new world needs not only next generation materials, but also next-generation companies, business models and partnerships. NUERA is the model through which this vision comes to life at industrial scale, and leading this transformation is deeply meaningful to me. I sincerely thank my partners at GOZEN who have contributed to this journey, our investors, and Burak Çelet, with whom we paved this path together. Because real change is possible not only by creating a new form, but by building together the conditions for that form to find its place in the world.”
LUNAFORM™: A Material Grown Through Human-Nature Collaboration
NUERA grows LUNAFORM™ at its facility in Istanbul. In this biofabrication process, microorganisms produce millions of nanofibers in dedicated chambers filled with water and nutrients. As these fibers come together and grow stronger, they form a homogeneous surface with its own distinctive natural texture, all within just seven days. Lunaform is 100% bio-based in its harvested state and certified as a USDA Certified Biobased Product. At the end of this minimal-input process, approximately 1.1 m. (12 ft.) of material is harvested in its wet state from each production tray. The five production rooms currently operating at pilot scale have a weekly capacity of approximately 275 sqm. and an annual capacity of around 15,000 sqm.Thanks to its modular structure, capacity can be expanded in line with demand. NUERA’s long-term goal is to transform the facility into a much larger-scale biofabrication center.
LUNAFORM™ is sent in sheets to DESA’s Leather Working Group (LWG) Gold-certified tannery in Çorlu, Türkiye. The tannery sources 90% of its energy from renewable sources. There, color, texture, coating and surface finish are tailored to each brand’s needs. One of LUNAFORM™’s most important characteristics is the ability to produce a wide variety of material qualities from a single raw material source. Its broad range spans semi-transparent surfaces just 0.3 mm thin and distinguished by their natural translucency, fuller-bodied structures reaching up to 1.2 mm in thickness, and surfaces dyed with 100% natural indigo that redefine the boundaries between textile and leather, offering designers and brands a wide spectrum of creative possibilities.
Burak Çelet, CEO of DESA and Founder of NUERA, said:
“Leather is my family heritage, and it remains one of the most sustainable materials in the world. Yet global warming, sustainability concerns and shifting consumer trends are making non-animal, next-generation materials that can be used alongside leather increasingly important, and a new market is emerging in this space. Kering Group has announced its goal to reduce its reliance on leather by 30% by 2028, while technology brands such as Tesla and Apple have moved away from animal leather in their products. As leather brands and companies, we need to embrace this change rather than resist it. With this in mind, we have spent years researching a wide range of complementary technologies. We identified bacterial cellulose fermentation as the strongest among them, and we found what we were looking for in GOZEN. For a tannery, LUNAFORM™ is like a new species: it’s not calf, it’s not lamb, it’s LUNAFORM™. It can be processed in our tannery with our existing machinery, without any additional investment. Many valuable innovations have emerged in recent years, yet no product has fully succeeded in making the leap from lab scale to industrial mass production. We built DESA on an integrated business model that manages every link of the value chain, from design to production and from tannery to retail. That same holistic approach now lies at the heart of NUERA. This allows us to take pride in bringing a new material to our industry and in being among the very first pioneers to bridge the gap between the lab and industrial mass production.”
One Integrated Ecosystem, from grown raw material to finished products
NUERA’s integrated business model does not end when the material leaves the tannery. Brands can have the products they design with LUNAFORM™ manufactured at DESA’s factories in Istanbul and Düzce and at its DESA Internazionale facility in Tuscany, while DESA’s well-established distribution network brings these products to global markets. With the entire development process, from biofabrication to finished product, taking place within the same structure, brands can work with a single partner and go straight into production rather than navigating multiple suppliers. Used by Balenciaga, Beymen Collection and DESA 1972, as well as many designers and brands, LUNAFORM™ is now moving beyond fashion through proof-of-concept projects NUERA has launched with automotive companies in Türkiye and around the world.
Po Bronson, General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of its San Francisco office, said:
“As Gozen’s first venture investor, I always believed Gozen’s technology would be the winner in the next-gen materials space. I also knew a startup can’t win alone – and a technology is not the same thing as a finished product. We needed the expertise and wisdom of craftspeople who’ve worked with leather their whole life. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working closely with Burak Çelet for over a year now, envisioning what we could build together. He is a remarkable entrepreneur, forward looking and creative, who cares so deeply about the leather industry. He has powerful business instincts and is also a leather engineer himself. Gozen could not have found a better partner, both in Burak and in Desa. We have a fantastic and close relationship now, and I look forward to being part of Nuera. I’m confident that Nuera will fully realize what every investor in next gen materials dreamed of.”
https://sosv.com/team/po-bronson/
About NUERA
NUERA is wholly owned by DESA and holds the exclusive global rights to produce and sell LUNAFORM™ under a long-term licensing agreement with GOZEN. Founded by DESA CEO Burak Çelet, NUERA grows LUNAFORM™ at its biofabrication facility in Istanbul. The material is then processed at DESA’s LWG Gold-certified tannery in Çorlu and supplied to the industry as a value-added solution. Ece Gözen Akın, CEO of GOZEN and Chief LUNAFORM Officer, leads the scientific, technical and creative evolution of the material and its underlying technology. Pelin Gözen, Chief Product Officer, leads post-harvest processing, brand-led product development and commercialization. Together, GOZEN’s biotechnology and material innovation, NUERA’s biomanufacturing platform and DESA’s more than 50 years of expertise in craftsmanship, finishing, processing, quality control and distribution connect biofabrication to finished products for global brands.
About GOZEN
Founded in 2022 by Ece Gözen Akın, Pelin Gözen, Kadir Onur and Eren, GOZEN is a San Francisco-based Turkish biotechnology and next-generation materials company. Ece Gözen Akın, GOZEN’s CEO, invented LUNAFORM™, a biomaterial made from bacterial nanocellulose, and created BioCraft, GOZEN’s proprietary biofabrication technology. Under a long-term exclusive licensing agreement, the global production and commercialization rights for LUNAFORM™ have been granted to NUERA, a wholly owned subsidiary of DESA. GOZEN’s top talent behind LUNAFORM™ is now embedded at NUERA, bringing its full scientific, technical and creative expertise to support the material’s industrial development and the platform’s global success.GOZEN’s mission is to reshape how we interact with the world around us, fostering a deeper connection with nature and balancing creative expression with reverence for our planet.
About DESA
Founded in Istanbul in 1972, DESA is Türkiye’s leading manufacturer of leather and leather goods. Its vertically integrated operations span the value chain from tanning to retail. DESA provides integrated solutions to international luxury brands such as Prada, Miu Miu, Chanel, Furla, Emporio Armani and Armani Collezioni, alongside its own brands, DESA and DESA 1972. DESA alone accounts for more than 50% of Türkiye’s leather goods exports to Italy, while 70% of its own production is exported to Italy. After serving as Samsonite’s distributor in Türkiye for 24 years, DESA formed a joint venture with the brand in 2007. The partnership now covers Türkiye and five neighboring countries. DESA reaches consumers through 109 stores across Türkiye, including DESA, DESA Samsonite, Samsonite and Tumi stores, as well as four online stores and a digital showroom. DESA carries out tanning, dyeing, drying and finishing at its 20,000 m² LWG Gold-certified tannery in Çorlu. It produces its women’s and men’s apparel, bags and accessories at facilities in Istanbul and Düzce, which have a combined area of 25,500 m². With the opening of its DESA Internazionale factory in Poppi, in Tuscany’s Casentino Valley, in 2023, DESA became the only Turkish brand with a leather manufacturing facility in Italy. DESA manages its global B2B partnerships through its Milan showroom, employs more than 1,600 people and has been listed on Borsa Istanbul since 2004. Most recently, through NUERA, founded in August 2026, DESA has brought its half-century of expertise in craftsmanship, design, manufacturing and brand building together with biofabrication.
https://www.desa.com.tr/hakkimizda
