Greiner Innoventures expands investment in start-up MATR
With the additional investment, Greiner is helping the start-up to grow further and pursue new projects.
- MATR’s overarching goal is to offer hotels sustainable mattresses that can be fully refurbished, reused, or recycled at the end of their service life
- With the additional investment, Greiner is helping the start-up to grow further and pursue new projects
- Greiner Innoventures, Greiner’s start-up hub, has supported the two founders right from the inception of their business idea
Vienna/Kremsmünster, October 3, 2024 – 30 million mattresses end up as waste in Europe every year. This challenge led to the founding of MATR, a start-up that deals with the recyclability of mattresses and was supported by Greiner from the very outset. MATR develops mattresses based on the criteria of EU Ecodesign and circular design. This means that the entire product life cycle is considered right from the start. MATR also pledges to retrieve and fully recycle its products at the end of their life cycle. This ensures the materials are actually recycled and reused in new products.
The plastics and foam company Greiner is convinced that the future lies in the circular economy. This is the focus not only of the product development of the three divisional companies, but also of the start-up hub Greiner Innoventures. The aim of Greiner Innoventures is to implement sustainable ideas in an entrepreneurial way – particularly in the field of the circular economy.
Greiner has supported the business ideas of MATR founders Verena Judmayer and Michaela Stephen from the outset. Two years after providing initial financial support, the start-up hub Greiner Innoventures has increased its investment by a low six-figure amount. In addition, MATR recently secured AWS seed funding to further support its future growth.
The increase in Greiner’s stake represents a clear commitment to MATR. “Greiner Innoventures is deliberately remaining a minority shareholder – after all, we want to preserve the start-up spirit,” explains Philipp Kranewitter, Senior Expert Innovation Manager at Greiner Innoventures. The corporate business angel also supports the two founders not only as an investor, but also as a partner with a large network and comprehensive industry expertise.
“In the long term, Greiner Innoventures aims to develop new components of the Greiner portfolio from investments and spin-offs. We believed from the outset that MATR’s circular business model has a future, and we want to help the start-up achieve further growth,” explains Christoph Zipko, Senior Venture & Business Model Manager at Greiner Innoventures.
“We’re very grateful for our fantastic partnership with Greiner Innoventures. In addition to the financial support, regular exchanges help us to further develop our ideas. There have been plenty of ups and downs since the company was founded, so it was important to have a reliable partner at our side,” explains Verena Judmayer, co-founder of MATR.
Already over ten well-known hotel customers
MATR already supplies over ten well-known hotel customers, including the boutique hotel Altstadt Vienna, the Hotel Beethoven Vienna, and the Sportlers Lodge in Sölden. Greiner Innoventures believes that this hotel market offers high growth potential.
Idea was born at a hackathon
The idea for MATR was born at a hackathon at the end of 2020, where Greiner Innoventures had addressed a problem – specifically, the question of how mattresses can be effectively recycled. The problem robbed the founders of many a night’s sleep, and so the company was founded under the name MATR in 2022, marking the brand’s second birthday this year.
“MATR now has a team of five behind it. The Austrian hotel industry was a great starting market, and we’ve already gained a foothold in Germany. However, we want to continue to grow internationally while also evaluating the opportunities in the retail market,” explains Michaela Stephen, co-founder of MATR.
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