Meet Mauricio Castro and Luis do Rego Fernández, selected in the second call for applications with their project Enigma 2040.
Tell us about yourselves and your background!
We are Luis do Rego Fernández and Mauricio Castro, co-founders of Enigma 2040.
Luis do Rego Fernández, an inventor and industrial engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in technological innovation for the textile and leather sectors, leads Enigma 2040’s global technology strategy, industrial design, and large-scale integration of sustainable processes in his role as CTO.
Mauricio Castro, a Business Administration graduate and the inventor of the ecological process that gave rise to Enigma 2040, is the CEO and oversees the strategic vision, R&D, and international expansion. We have devoted more than a decade to developing a technology that has already been validated at TRL 9.
Our shared journey is rooted in a deep conviction: the leather industry can be clean, circular, efficient, and regenerative without sacrificing quality or tradition. Over the years, we have worked across laboratories, tanneries, technology centres, and industrial ecosystems to validate a solution that today reduces freshwater consumption by up to 97%, eliminates 100% of toxic waste discharged into the environment, and delivers full traceability and strict ESG compliance.
We also share technical knowledge through our educational YouTube channel, @CueroEstudioMas, where a growing community follows content on sustainable fashion, green chemistry, and circular processes.
How did you find out about SCAIRA?
A strategic partner told us about SCAIRA and, as we explored the platform, we identified an ecosystem perfectly aligned with our current operational stage: strengthening our scalability strategy without upfront capital, accessing international corporate, institutional, and financial networks, professionalising our digital and reputational presence, and integrating our technology into global sustainability ecosystems. For us, SCAIRA is a bridge between technical validation, international visibility, and real acceleration.
What stage is your start-up currently at?
We are currently in a phase of international industrial scale-up, with most of our milestones already achieved: an active PCT patent entering the national phase in several countries; TRL 9 technology that has been measured, audited, and validated in real tannery environments; operational pilot projects certified by PCW; hides produced through our processes certified by AITEX; a joint venture in advanced negotiations (49% Enigma / 51% local partners); and a consortium under development for an ENIGMA 2040 Centre for Production, Research, Consultancy, and Internationalisation.
Our 36-month objective: 200 operational installations enabling the production of 100 million pairs of shoes per year using Enigma 2040 eco-friendly leather.
What is the nature of your project, and what problem does it aim to solve?
Enigma 2040 is an electromechanical technology that replaces the traditional drum and completely transforms the tanning process. Our solution reduces freshwater consumption by up to 97% (from 1,500 litres to around 50 litres per hide treatment), eliminates 100% of toxic waste (Chromium VI, PFAS, nitrogen, sulphides), cuts CO₂ emissions by up to 65%, lowers energy consumption by 90%, and recovers between 95% and 98% of the chemical bath through intelligent recirculation.
The problem is that the leather industry is responsible for one of the highest levels of toxic water pollution worldwide—greater even than mining in some countries. A single hide can pollute up to 1,500 litres of water with hazardous waste. This leads to increased regulatory penalties, social and environmental risks, loss of international certifications, trade restrictions, sanctions, and reputational damage.
Our five-year vision is to become the global benchmark for sustainable tanning, ensuring clean water, full traceability, and zero-discharge processes throughout the entire leather supply chain.
What SCAIRA services have you chosen?
We have selected the key services for our phase of international expansion:
S3: Financial strategy for innovation and sustainable manufacturing.
S4: Access to public funding, green finance, and grants.
S10: Marketing, communication, and international positioning.
S13: Introduction to industry players, corporations, and investors + LOOM registration.
S14: Organisation of high-level B2B and B2F meetings on a global scale.
What are your short-term objectives during the acceleration programme?
Our short-term objectives within the programme focus on building the organisational, technical, and strategic capabilities that will enable Enigma 2040 to scale globally in a robust manner and without upfront capital. Specifically, we aim to:
O.1: Attract key expertise and strengthen internal capabilities
Incorporate the training, consultancy, and expert support needed to reinforce our operational, financial, legal, and technical structure, ensuring an international expansion that is orderly, auditable, and fully replicable.
O.2: Structure and formalise pilot joint ventures
Consolidate strategic partnerships in Spain, Turkey, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador, establishing the legal, administrative, and operational foundations for the first production projects under the Enigma 2040 model.
O.3: Design a leasing and no-upfront-investment adoption model
Create an accessible system for tanneries, textile manufacturers, and other interested producers, enabling immediate adoption of the technology through operational fees and environmental performance contracts.
O.4: Develop production projects and applied innovation
Accelerate the launch of production pilots with full traceability, independent certification, and industrial validation, demonstrating the true potential of the “zero-waste regenerative tanning” model.
O.5: Activate operational and commercial internationalisation
Organise our global expansion through common standards, implementation manuals, certification processes, and structures that enable simultaneous scale-up across multiple countries.
O.6: Drive the Live Traceability Showcase
Deliver the flagship event showcasing the full traceability of Enigma 2040’s eco-friendly leather, aiming for 10 million impressions and positioning it as a benchmark in sustainable fashion.
O.7: Access strategic funding
Apply for €35 million in green funds, grants, and international cooperation programmes, aligning our roadmap with European, Latin American, and Asian frameworks.
O.8: Establish an international network of certified operators (Eco-Apprentices)
Train 50 local operators to lead implementation in each country, creating technical employment and ensuring knowledge transfer with no fixed costs.
Who is your target market, and what customer need are you addressing?
Our target market brings together the key players in the global leather and fashion supply chain: from tanneries and manufacturers to international brands and certification bodies. It is a broad, highly regulated sector undergoing a major transition towards more sustainable, traceable, and circular models. In this context, Enigma 2040 provides a technology that enables tanneries to modernise without new infrastructure, without liquid effluents, and with a rapid return on investment. It also offers more than 300,000 manufacturers and brands the possibility—often for the first time—to produce or manage their own eco-friendly leather, with guaranteed authenticity and traceability.
Global fashion brands—from luxury to sportswear and fast fashion—require materials with minimal water, energy, and chemical footprints, supported by verifiable certifications. Enigma 2040 helps them meet their targets for decarbonisation, responsible water use, elimination of hazardous substances, and ESG reporting under international standards. Likewise, industry associations, chambers of commerce, and OEMs see our technology as a strategic tool to modernise their value chains and reduce regulatory costs. And for sustainability programmes, certification organisations, and multilateral institutions, Enigma 2040 acts as a “technology catalyst”, enabling tangible progress towards global goals such as the EU Green Deal, the 2030 Agenda, and ZDHC.
At the same time, the industry faces critical challenges: stringent regulations (CSDDD, REACH, ZDHC), significant legal and financial risks, and a consumer base that increasingly demands sustainable, verifiable products. Enigma 2040 eliminates toxic effluents entirely, brings the risk of penalties—exceeding €200 million annually—close to zero, and enables the production of eco-friendly leather with full certification and traceability. It integrates blockchain, real-time audits and verifications, and achieves unprecedented reductions: up to 97% less water, 90% less energy, and 95–98% recovery of the chemical bath. Altogether, this makes it possible to achieve a return on investment in under 12 months, even in emerging economies.
Our proposition combines technology, certification, and an accessible business model. We offer a plug-and-play solution, adaptable to any scale, that enables the production of eco-friendly leather without generating waste and with minimal environmental impact. The platform incorporates blockchain-based digital traceability and verifiable environmental metrics, ensuring rigorous and transparent control across every stage of the process.
In addition, we provide independent notarised certification that eliminates the risk of greenwashing and delivers full credibility with brands, public authorities, and consumers. The no-upfront-investment adoption model — through leasing or joint ventures — makes it possible to implement the technology across any segment of the industry, accelerating its transition towards more sustainable and competitive practices.
What are your main current challenges?
Our current challenges revolve around achieving an orderly international expansion, protecting our intellectual property worldwide, securing technical legitimacy with regulators and major brands, training certified operators in different countries, and enabling the cultural adoption of a technology that completely redefines the leather industry. At this stage of accelerated growth, Enigma 2040 faces strategic challenges typical of a disruptive technology, but also of a traditional sector undergoing a turning point towards sustainability. Our main challenges fall into four key areas: international expansion, intellectual property, technical and cultural legitimacy, and the development of specialised talent.
1. Scaling internationally with a no-upfront-investment model
Our expansion model — based on joint ventures, environmental performance contracts, and leasing agreements with no initial investment — enables us to enter both developed and emerging markets without relying on immediate external capital. However, this type of deployment requires building strong local partnerships with industrial actors capable of ensuring operations, maintenance, and governance; adapting the operating model to very different regulatory frameworks, energy sources, and production realities; designing manuals and protocols that allow the system to be replicated across several countries simultaneously; and coordinating logistics, installation, technical validation, and training in multiple markets at the same time. This challenge is critical to achieving our goal of installing more than 200 units over the next 36 months.
2. Managing entry into the national phase of the PCT in more than 50 countries
Intellectual property sits at the heart of our business model. Although our technology is already protected under an international PCT, entering the national phase means strategically selecting the countries in which to proceed, coordinating simultaneously with more than 50 patent offices — each with its own technical and legal requirements — defining an IP defence strategy that protects not only the machine, but also the ecological method, the traceability system, and the business model, and robustly documenting our environmental, mechanical, energy, and chemical indicators. This process is essential for safeguarding our competitive advantage and ensuring the credibility of any future global operations.
3. Combating perceptions of greenwashing through verifiable evidence
Enigma 2040 proposes a radical shift: eliminating 100% of toxic effluents in an industry long accustomed to polluting processes. As such, one of our greatest challenges is building scientific, public, and corporate legitimacy, avoiding any doubts about exaggeration or greenwashing. To achieve this, we require independent external audits, technical validations from technology centres such as AITEX, PCW, and universities, verifiable environmental indicators aligned with international standards, notarised records of processes and results in each country, integration of blockchain traceability as transparent public evidence, and the preparation of ESG and LCA reports following recognised methodologies. In a sector that has historically been subject to scrutiny, credibility is as important as the technology itself.
4. Large-scale training of certified local operators
For our technology to scale globally, installing equipment is not enough: we must build a human ecosystem capable of operating, maintaining, and properly auditing the technology. This involves developing a structured training programme — Eco-Apprentices — training the first 50 operators across different countries, creating multilingual training materials, simulators, safety protocols, and technical manuals, certifying competencies through modular and verifiable models, and ensuring that these operators can train others (the “train-the-trainer” model). This challenge is essential to guarantee operational consistency in markets with diverse cultures and technological capacities.
5. Managing the cultural adoption of a disruptive technology
Leather tanning is one of the world’s oldest industrial crafts, with deeply rooted traditions. Replacing the traditional drum — a machine used for more than 150 years — with advanced electromechanical technology also presents a cultural and emotional challenge. Key difficulties include overcoming initial resistance to change, demonstrating that the quality of leather produced with Enigma 2040 not only matches but surpasses conventional standards, building trust among master tanners, traditional operators, and tannery owners, adapting communication to different levels of technical knowledge and cultural sensitivity, and providing real evidence through pilot projects, demonstrations, and comparative data. This challenge is particularly delicate in countries where the craft is passed down from generation to generation.
Do you already have a team?
Enigma 2040 does more than scale technology: it also scales talent, knowledge, culture, and an entirely new way of producing leather worldwide. Our team is designed to lead the global transition towards zero-waste tanning that is fully traceable and environmentally regenerative. The growth of Enigma 2040 is supported by highly specialised technical and strategic leadership, together with an organisational structure built to scale internationally, transfer knowledge, and ensure consistent operations in every market we enter.
Luis do Rego Fernández, CTO (Chief Technology Officer), is an industrial engineer with more than two decades of experience in innovation applied to the textile and leather sectors. He is responsible for the global technological architecture of the Enigma 2040 system, its industrial validation under TRL 9 standards, the electromechanical design of the technology, and the integration of optimised, sustainable processes. He also leads corporate partnerships with technology centres, manufacturers, and industrial clusters. His approach combines advanced engineering, sustainability, and a strategic vision for scalability, enabling Enigma 2040 to integrate seamlessly into highly diverse industrial contexts.
Mauricio Castro, CEO (Chief Executive Officer), is the inventor of the ecological process that gave rise to Enigma 2040 and the person responsible for leading the company’s global corporate strategy. He directs R&D and the evolution of the sustainable process, manages the international patent and its rollout in each country, and designs the international expansion model based on joint ventures, leasing, and environmental performance contracts. He also defines the strategic vision of the business, consolidates international partnerships, and represents the project at institutional, scientific, and technical levels. His leadership combines scientific innovation, environmental vision, corporate development, and a strategic narrative that brings coherence and purpose to the project.
Team planned for the scale-up phase
To expand Enigma 2040 globally, we are building a multinational team made up of 12 key roles, designed to address the organisation’s operations, expansion, and reputation simultaneously. The most relevant roles include:
Engineering and Technology Team
This team includes specialists in AI applied to industrial processes, automation and control engineers, experts in blockchain and digital traceability, electromechanical engineers specialised in high-precision machinery, and chemists focused on sustainability, process optimisation, chemical reduction, and regulatory compliance. These profiles ensure a clean, efficient, and fully replicable industrial operation.
Certification, Operations, and Compliance Team
Composed of quality coordinators, auditors, and specialists in environmental certifications (REACH, ZDHC, CSDDD, ISO), field implementation supervisors, and experts in international regulations. They are responsible for technical governance and operational standards, ensuring that Enigma 2040 meets international requirements in every country.
Industrial Marketing and Corporate Development Team
Formed by experts in B2B marketing for industry and sustainability, corporate communications specialists, international reputation managers, strategic development professionals, and coordinators for institutional relations and global training. This team positions Enigma 2040 as an international benchmark in sustainable leather
Strategic Impact Programmes
In addition to the core team, Enigma 2040 incorporates two key programmes designed to transfer knowledge, generate local impact, and build a global network of certified talent:
50 Eco-Apprentices – Certified Local Operators
This programme brings together the first 50 international operators, trained directly by our technical team to run the technology in real-world conditions, maintain global standards, ensure the quality of the ecological process, and act as trainers within their own regions. It is a model with no fixed costs, enabling fast and sustainable deployment.
International Think Tank – 15 Multidisciplinary Experts
Comprising scientists, engineers, designers, artists, specialised journalists, and “water thinkers”, this group supports the project in producing scientific articles and technical papers, shaping the environmental and cultural narrative of regenerative tanning, contributing conceptual insights on circularity, water, traceability, and industrial ethics, and providing strategic consultancy on innovation, communication, and global sustainability. The Think Tank helps safeguard the project’s reputation, technical rigour, and intellectual depth.
Enigma 2040 is not a tannery that purifies; it is an intelligent purification plant that tans. It represents a new industrial paradigm capable of eliminating toxic waste, recovering almost the entire chemical bath, drastically reducing water, energy, and emissions, and ensuring full traceability without compromising the quality or craftsmanship of leather.
Our aim is not to create yet another alternative, but to transform a centuries-old industry into a regenerative model, demonstrating that it is possible to produce natural leather without polluting and without relying on traditional wastewater treatment systems.
Enigma 2040 is technology, method, and vision: a standard for the industry of the future — zero-discharge, auditable in real time, and aligned with the most demanding regulations. Today, we are ready to scale globally from SCAIRA, supported by an expanding patent, TRL 9–validated technology, a no-upfront-investment model, international partnerships, and an ecosystem that integrates engineering, science, and blockchain traceability.
We are not offering a machine, but a reliable infrastructure for the future of leather — where sustainability is measurable, verifiable, and profitable. We are ready to scale and transform the industry, from SCAIRA to the world!