EXPO 2025 Osaka

From Austria to Osaka: FreyZein’s Journey to Japan

In May 2025, FreyZein’s founder Jan Karlsson and co-founder Dr. Barnaby Caven joined Austria’s economic delegation to EXPO 2025 in Osaka, led by President Dr. Alexander Van der Bellen and Economic Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer. For us, this was more than ceremony—it marked the start of our entry into Asia’s innovation ecosystem.

As one of the selected startups at the Austrian Pavilion, we presented TerraTech™, the world’s first plastic-free multilayer fabric engineered entirely from cellulose. Throughout EXPO, the pavilion provided a global stage to show how performance and sustainability can be achieved without petrochemicals.

Japan is a particularly important market. As a leader in high-performance textiles, sustainable materials, and precision engineering, it offers the perfect environment for TerraTech™. The resonance was immediate: what began as polite curiosity from leading corporations quickly became genuine interest, with feedback confirming both the novelty and the relevance of our approach.

The momentum continues in December 2025, when FreyZein will return to Japan through GIN’s “GO TOKYO 2025” program. While Osaka was about sparking attention, Tokyo will be about action—turning interest into collaborations, pilot projects, and first customer relationships.

This journey matters because it elevates TerraTech™ as a credible benchmark for sustainable performance, connects us with a market uniquely aligned with our mission, and creates momentum to scale. From Austria to Osaka, and soon to Tokyo, our vision remains clear: performance without petrochemicals. TerraTech™ is more than a fabric—it defines a new category of Performance Cellulosics, and Japan is set to play a central role in bringing that vision to life.