Data Sets
A growing number of investment rounds are bringing sustainability-centric endeavors and more often than not, sustainability-focused tech, to the fore, as consumers and shareholders, alike, continue to focus on the sizable role that retail – including fashion industry – plays in the larger climate crisis. With rising consumer awareness and resulting demands for action and transparency on this front, investors increasingly taking environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors into account when making decisions, and lawmakers across the globe pushing for climate-centric legislation in light of rampant greenwashing, we have compiled a (running) timeline of funding and M&A to provide a broad overview of sustainable investments in fashion and the broader retail space, and shed light on what the trajectory of this segment of the market looks like more generally …
Bcomp has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by EGS Beteiligungen AG (EGSB), Verve Ventures, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and RKKVC. The Fribourg, Switerland-based company said that it is the global leader in “high-performance, natural fibre composites for the mobility, recreational and mass transportation sectors.” It will use the new funds to scale its production capacity and support its entry into new markets in Asia and North America, as well as to introduce lightweight and sustainable solutions for additional verticals, including consumer goods.
“Not only are we facing more stringent regulations for carbon outputs, but consumers and manufacturers everywhere understand that we need to decarbonize to preserve our global environment,” said Bcomp CEO and Co-Founder Christian Fischer.
EALYX has raised €880,000 in a Seed round from Demium Capital, Archipelago Next, Ona Capital, First Drop VC’s Impact fund, Coben Ventures, Lanai Partners, Plug&Play Ventures, and Tres Coronas Capital, which it will complement with non-dilutive funding to complete an overall raise of €1 million. The Barcelona-based platform, which offers a B2B SaaS for e-commerce that enables customers to pay for new purchases with old items, says that it “works for a circular future where used items are a form of payment, enabling e-commerce to be at the heart of such a transaction.” It will use the new funds to accelerate product development, expand its reach, and enhance its implementation.
Cozero has raised €6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Kvanted and ENV, with contributions from NewAlpha Asset Management and several business angels. The Berlin-based climate tech software company will use the new funds to accelerate its international expansion and advance its Climate ERP solution, an emission management software. Cozero co-founder and CEO Helen Tacke said in a statement, “Climate management tools must evolve, allowing organizations to effectively measure and reduce their carbon footprint by linking climate actions to business impacts. Our Climate ERP provides a proven technology that facilitates seamless emissions management and targeted steering of the company and its resources. This enables businesses to not only meet regulatory reporting requirements but also to transform their value chain and product offerings towards premium, low-carbon alternatives.”
Karma Wallet, a sustainable consumer spending company, acquired DoneGood, a marketplace for sustainable shopping. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The acquisition will see Raleigh, NC-based Karma Wallet combine its data platform, brand insights, and financial products with Cullen Schwarz-led DoneGood’s marketplace, which boasts over 100 sustainable and ethical brands and a diverse range of products. “Consumers will now be able to seamlessly translate their values into impactful shopping choices, with substantial benefits enabled by the Karma Wallet membership,” the companies said in a statement.
Sparxell has raised a $3.2 million in a funding round (comprising seed investments, grants, and awards) led by Circular Innovation Fund and L’Oréal, alongside SpaceX-backer Futre Communities Capital, PDS Ventures, Katapult, Joyance Partners, and SNØCAP VC. The UK-based developer of high-performance, sustainable, plant-based pigments will use the new funds to “accelerate development and commercialization of products, which will eliminate synthetic chemicals from colourants in multi-billion dollar markets including in cosmetics, fashion, paint, and packaging.”
“Traditional chemical colourants are causing major environmental harm through every stage of their lifecycle, from manufacture to degradation. Over 10,000 fossil-based chemicals are used in current colouration processes. The textile industry is a well-known emitter of dyes and microplastics, with over 1.5m tonnes entering the environment every year, while paint has recently been recognized as the largest source of microplastics in the ocean,” said Sparxell founder & CEO Benjamin Droguet.
Circular.co has raised $10.5 million in financing from a new $5.3 million round backed by Maniv, Oxygea, and Eclipse, and a $5.2 million Seed round previously led by Eclipse. The San Francisco-based sustainable sourcing platform – which boasts a “database of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials and its accompanying platform that streamlines buying and selling of PCR materials” – will use the new funds to “grow its team, expand to additional sustainable materials, continue to add more companies and suppliers, and deepen the scale and functionality of its platform.”
“Buyers transitioning to recycled materials face the typical challenges of an emerging, analog market rife with inefficiency and a lack of transparency. They can’t find the material they need, and if they can find it, it’s too expensive – and if they can afford it, there are often quality or consistency issues,” said Circular founder and CEO Ian Arthurs. “Existing relationship-driven systems fail to provide the information necessary for buyers to make fast informed decisions, and on the flip side, suppliers have a hard time being discovered by and getting access to serious buyers. Circular unblocks these common issues using data and technology to help buyers and sellers navigate the global market efficiently.”
Sprih has raised $3 million in a Seed funding round led by Leo Capital with with participation from “entrepreneurs and climate experts from around the world.” The Philadelphia-based carbon emissions management platform enables businesses to “efficiently reach their decarbonization targets and improve their brand reputation” by helping them to “develop a data-driven sustainability strategy, making the intricate process of measuring, comparing, and disclosing emissions throughout their operations and supply chain.” It will use the new funds to for “sales and marketing activities to support our global expansion efforts” and to hire talent to “develop AI models centered on climate and broaden our partner ecosystem to aid customers in implementing climate solutions.”
The Akash Keshav-led company said in a statement, “We are reshaping corporate environmental sustainability with our next-gen SaaS platform. By choosing Sprih, businesses not only adhere to regulatory standards but also position themselves strategically in sustainability, enhancing their corporate reputation and realizing potential long-term business advantages.”
eComID has raised €2.75M in a Pre-Seed round led by CapitalT with support from follow-on investment from H&M Group Ventures, and strategic angel investors, including LEGO Group VP and former Zalando director Anaheta Berenberg-Consbruch, Vice President at the LEGO Group and former Director at Zalando and former H&M Managing Director Madeleine Persson. The Stockholm-based climate tech startup, which aims to “empower global online retailers to reduce online product returns, shrink the environmental footprint, and guide shoppers to discover and buy products they’ll truly love,” will use the new funds to “expand [its] platform capabilities and extend its previously invitation-only solution to a broader range of brands.”
BlockTexx has raised AU$7 million ($4.57 million) in a Series B round from fashion innovation platform Fashion for Good, Artesian, and seed investors Mike and Sue Gregg. Co-founder Graham Ross said the Australian textile recycling company will use the new funds “to accelerate our ability to meet the market demands for our remanufactured products – PolyTexx and CellTexx, and to take our end of life textile solution to the world.”
Hakio has raised €4 million in a Seed round co-led by People Ventures and Dreamcraft Ventures and joined by existing investors Blazar Capital and Founderment. The Danish SaaS company, which helps fashion and apparel companies to make more accurate predictions about their future sales to optimize inventory levels, will use the new funds to further develop and expand its platform. Hakio says that it “leverages machine learning algorithms to enhance forecasting accuracy and tackle the global waste issue in the fashion industry. “By removing bias when creating a baseline forecast and subsequently including expert knowledge in a sleek and user-friendly platform, fashion brands can increase planning accuracy and reduce operational costs and working capital. This means companies can free up funds to use elsewhere,” said Hakio co-founder and CEO Malte Bjerg Vittrup.
Climate Policy Radar has raised over $6.8 million in a new funding round from the the Environmental Defense Fund, Google.org, Open Society Foundations, The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Sequoia Climate Foundation, Schmidt Futures and Quadrature Climate Foundation. The London-based startup uses data science and machine learning to analyze climate change policies and laws on a global scale. It will use the new funds to expand its scope of available data by adding more documents, including sub-national policies, climate-related litigation cases and corporate disclosures.
Watershed has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round was led by Greenoaks with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Emerson Collective, and Galvanize Climate Solutions. The round brings the San Francisco, CA-based enterprise sustainability platform provider’s valuation to $1.8 billion valuation. Founded in 2019, Watershed provides enterprise climate platform that combines climate data and climate action for large companies – like Walmart, Skims, General Mills, BalckRock, Paramount, etc. – to measure, report, and reduce their carbon emissions. Co-founder Taylor Francis said, “Corporate climate action is accelerating. Companies of all sizes and sectors are making sustainability a board-level priority, and we are supporting them as they work to measure, report, and reduce their emissions. This new investment will bolster our mission to accelerate the climate economy.”
Supply chain traceability platform TrusTrace has raised $24 million in a Series B round led by Circularity Capital with participation from with participation from existing investors Industrifonden and Fairpoint Capital. The Stockholm, Sweden-based company, which focuses on the fashion industry, offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for supply chain traceability and compliance, enabling brands and suppliers to standardize how supply chain and material traceability data is captured, digitized, and shared. TrusTrace co-founder and CEO Shameek Ghosh said, “A growing number of fashion and textile brands are adopting supply chain traceability to support their sustainability goals and ensure competitiveness in the face of mounting regulatory and consumer pressure.”
ZymoChem has raised $21 million in a Series A round led by Breakout Ventures with participation from new investors, including lululemon athletica inc. and Toyota Ventures, and existing investors, such as GS Futures, KdT Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures. creator of a carbon-efficient bio-manufacturing platform. The San Leandro, California-based company, which uses proprietary carbon conserving microbes to convert renewable feedstocks into bio-based materials, will use the new funds to launch its first high-performance material and advance its first partnered product to commercial scale. CEO Harshal Chokhawala said in a statement, “Our technology delivers sustainability without compromising performance, scale, and importantly economics. This unlock already catalyzed multiple partnerships with world-leading companies and we’re thrilled to expand our impact with our key stakeholders.“
Qorium has secured investment from breakthrough VC’s Brightlands Venture Partners and Sofinnova Partners in a new round that it says “marks a significant vote of confidence in the future of sustainable, cell cultured leather production.” In addition to the funding, which will enable it to further its “journey towards commercial scale,” the Maastricht, Netherlands-based cell-cultured leather company announced the appointment of Michael Newton, a former Nike senior executive, as Chief Executive Officer. Newton said in a statement, “My years at Nike were all about innovating product to unleash human potential; I’m thrilled to be taking this next logical step, where incredible science can deliver a truly sustainable future through high quality, excellent products that consumers covet.”
Mogu Srl d/b/a Sqim has raised 11 million euros in a Series A round led by CDP Venture Capital and co-led by ECBF VC, with participation from Kering Ventures and from existing shareholder Progress Tech Transfer. The Italian biotech company, which specializes in biofabricated materials made from pure mushroom root mycelium, will use the new funds to scales its “innovative technologies and to develop its Ephea and Mogu product lines.” Stefano Babbini, chief executive and co-founder of Mogu, said in a statement: “I’m extremely proud of what we just achieved. Sqim’s team has been working very hard in the last years with the mission of proving that innovation, sustainability, and industrialization can not only coexist but even offer an added value to different industries whether properly cooked.”
Renewcell AB has nabbed $10 million in short-term funding in order to “resolve [its] short-term liquidity need.” Specifically, the Swedish textile recycling company has entered into two short-term loans with its major shareholders, H&M Fashion AB and Girincubator AB, and, through waivers and amendments in relation to the Company’s existing financial arrangements, its existing lenders BNP Paribas, European Investment Bank (EIB), Nordea Bank Abp, filial i Sverige, and AB Svensk Exportkredit. According to the company, the Financial Arrangements will provide it with additional net liquidity and that its “strategic review remains ongoing with the aim to secure long-term financing during the first quarter of 2024.”
HSBC has committed $4 million to Apparel Impact Institute’s Fashion Climate Fund, a $250 million philanthropic fund that seeks to decarbonize the apparel and footwear sectors. The financial services company joins the likes of H&M, H&M Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Lululemon, PVH Foundation, and Target, which have also backed the fund, bringing the total amount of committed funds to date to $70 million.
Hugo Boss announced that it is “the first company to invest in Collateral Good Ventures Fashion I, a climate-first venture capital fund designed to accelerate sustainability in the fashion industry.” The German fashion brand said in a statement that Collateral Good Ventures fund “will use this contribution over a period of five years to subsidize several portfolio companies that are in the startup, early growth and potential stages and are developing innovative solutions and technologies in the sustainability field, including various areas along the entire value and supply chain, such as upcycling of raw materials, preventing microfibre releases, as well as repair and care solutions.”
BioFluff has raised €2.2 million in a Seed round led by Astanor Ventures, following a 2022 Pre-seed round, which saw the company raised €450,000 from SOSV, PDS Limited & Joyance Partners. The bio-materials startup, which is based in New York and Paris, aims to “redefine the luxury textiles industry with its innovative, sustainable, plant-based alternative to animal-derived and plastic-based fabrics.” BioFluff CEO Martin Stübler said in a statement, “At the close of this seed round with best-in-class impact investors, we are poised to scale our unique approach to reducing reliance on animal and synthetic-derived products in the textile industry. This investment will accelerate our mission to provide brands with better materials for a cleaner future.”
VYN has raised £500,000 from a new funding round, which the Swiss footwear brand says it will use to ramp up capacity and expand the distribution of the world’s first “renewable” sneaker. ““With this funding, we can scale up our operations and deliver our game-changing sneakers to a wider audience,” a rep for the company said. “We’re committed to offering stylish and sustainable footwear options, and this investment will greatly support our mission.”
SuperCircle has raised $7 million in a Pre-Series A round co-led by Radicle Impact and Ulu Ventures, with participation from Earthshot Ventures, BBG Ventures, Lyra Ventures, and Blueprint Ventures. The New York-based textile recycling logistics platform helps fashion brands and retailers launch in-house recycling programs and offload bulk inventory. In addition to “allowing brands to collect, sort and process pre-consumer and post-consumer apparel and footwear,” CEO Chloe Songer said that SuperCircle “provides garment-level tracking and tracing through responsible end-of-life.” The company says that the new funds “will be instrumental in growing SuperCircle’s infrastructure and streamlining shipping, consolidation, sorting, grading, and recycling services for brands and retailers globally.” At the same time, the company will make “key strategic hires across sales, operations, technology, and engineering to enhance circularity solutions for its extensive portfolio of brands.”
Octarine has raised €4.35 million ($4.6 million) in a new funding round led by Óskare Capital, Unconventional Ventures, and The Footprint Firm with participation from dsm-firmenich Venturing, bringing its total funding to date to more than €12 million. The Copenhagen-based synthetic biology platform company “develops new colors and sustainable dyeing technologies to transform the fashion and food industries.” It will use the new funds to accelerate and scale its flagship products. Nethaji Gallage, CEO and co-founder of Octarine, said in a statement, “At Octarine, we are driven by a more sustainable future where pressing environmental and social challenges are met with innovative, game-changing, and sustainable solutions. Octarine’s strong synthetic biology platform has allowed us to quickly iterate from one ingredient to the next validating our platform capabilities, and today we collaborate with global industry leaders on the path to commercialization of our flagship products.
Risk Ledger has raised £6.25 million in a Series A funding round led by UK investor Mercia Ventures, with participation form Seedcamp, Firstminute Capital, Episode 1, Village Global, Lifeline Ventures., bringing its total funding to date to £9.8 million. The London, UK-based provider of a collaborative platform for supplier due diligence says that it “offers an innovative social network approach to supply chain risk management, allowing organizations to use the platform as both clients and suppliers, able to share with connected organizations a single profile of their controls across 12 security domains, including ESG and financial risk.” Haydn Brooks, co-founder and CEO, at Risk Ledger said in a statement, “The unique ability of Risk Ledger to map relationships and interdependencies in the supply chain allows organizations to understand where they sit within their own supplier ecosystem and how different incidents may impact their organization given those interdependencies.”
Ambercycle has raised $5M in a new funding round led by Drive Catalyst, the investment arm of Taiwanese conglomerate Far Eastern Group. The Los Angeles, CA-based company, which provides molecular regeneration technology for the fashion industry, will use the new funds to support the scale-up of cycora®, its circular polyester made from end-of-life textile waste. Led by founder and CO Shay Sethi, Ambercycle provides molecular regeneration technology. its flagship product, cycora®, a regenerated polyester, is made from end-of-life textiles. “We have on the equity side right now a lot of very great financial investors, strategic brands, and the one piece that we’re really missing is the supply chain partners to make this all happen,” Sethi told Axios.
ESG Flo has raised $5.25 million in a Seed round was co-led by Rho Ignition and Tola Capital with participation from Bain & Company and Contour Venture Partners. The New York-based AI-powered data infrastructure platform “targets customers in the industrial, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors that need a centralized way to manage their sustainability data given stakeholder pressure and level of ESG impact.” ESG Flo CEO Patrick Obeid said in a statement, “We envision a business world where ESG conversations are as important as financial ones. We’re on a mission to equip businesses with precise ESG data for integrated reporting and responsible decision making.”
Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform decarbonizing media and advertising, has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by GV. The New York-headquartered startup says that the investment will be used to accelerate the development of Scope3’s collaborative sustainability platform (CSP), a first-of-its-kind platform that visualizes the massively interconnected ad ecosystem while powering meaningful carbon reduction. It will also use the funding to grow its global team of advertising, tech, and sustainability experts and further expand its data and measurement capabilities.“The climate crisis is an urgent and global problem. With all eyes on the world’s largest brands, advertisers, and businesses to solve it, these companies are embracing sustainability as an opportunity that is both good for the planet and good for business. Sustainable advertising is inevitable,” said Brian O’Kelley, Co-Founder and CEO, Scope3. “At Scope3, we’re building a business that will serve as the foundation for the next generation of media and advertising. This investment gives us the resources to put decarbonization tools into the hands of the industry, while attracting the talent needed to build a more sustainable ad ecosystem and deliver on our mission.”
Responsibly has raised $2.4 million in a Seed round led by Hambro Perks and Pi Labs, which joined Global Founders Capital, AENU, Michael Wax and Benedikt Franke. The Copenhagen, Denmark-based startup provides platform for companies to assess supplier sustainability and reduce data compliance costs. Co-founded by Daniel Stanila, Hope Jeter, Christian Hjort Lauritzen, and CEO Thomas Buch Andersson, Responsibly leverages artificial intelligence to evaluate various sustainability factors, including carbon emissions, gender pay gap, human rights, and deforestation, assisting businesses in assessing the sustainability of their suppliers. It will use the new funds to expand operations and further refine its platform.
CEO Thomas Buch Andersson said in a statement, “Our mission is to make every b2b purchase in the world truly sustainable and ethically responsible by leveraging cutting-edge AI-driven technology. As more buyers push suppliers for sustainability data to achieve scope 3 targets or regulatory compliance, we want companies to spend less time manually collecting sustainability data – which is completely unscalable – so they can focus on actually making an impact where it matters the most by building a more sustainable supply chain which complies with increasing regulation.”
FlexSea has raised £3 million in an equity Seed round led by Indico Capital Partners, with the participation of RedRice Ventures, Btomorrow Ventures, Food Foundry, Vala Capital, ICON Capital, and Pente Capital. The London, UK-based sustainable-packaging company aiming to replace traditional petroleum plastic film with an innovative natural material derived from seaweed for companies across industries, including those is cosmetics and textiles. It will use the new funds to fuel growth across its UK and Lisbon-based teams. FlexSea’s CEO and co-founder, Carlo Fedeli, said: “This investment will allow us to make significant progress and penetrate the market effectively,” with Co-founder and CTO Thibaut Monfort stating that the company is “heavily investing in equipment and machinery for in-house R&D, speeding up the process tremendously.”
Muir AI has raised $3.25 million in a Seed round led by Base10 Partners with participation from existing investors, Madrona Venture Labs and Soma Capital. Founded by CEO Harris Chalat and CTO Peter Williams, the Seattle-based climate tech startup intends to use the funds to accelerate development of AI technology to reduce emissions within corporations’ supply chains. Muir AI addresses the lack of actionable supply chain emissions data by was of novel technology that generates “accurate and specific emissions data across entire supply chains, even when minimal data is available.” It boasts clients in the industrial, apparel, retail and consumer goods industries.
Resourcify has raised €14 million in a Series A round led by Vorwerk Ventures, with participation from Revent, Ananda Impact Ventures, Speedinvest, BonVenture, and WEPA Ventures. The Hamburg, Germany-based waste management and recycling platform will use the new funds to further develop its innovative digital solutions and contribute to the transformation of waste management processes. Led by Gary Lewis, Resourcify provides a SaaS platform that “analyzes different recycling opportunities for companies, helping them identify local recycling routes and improve their recycling reporting and invoice management practices.” The company’s platform is already being used by leading enterprises in Europe, including McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson. “One notable aspect of waste management and recycling is its resilience to economic fluctuations,” says Lewis. “Even during tough economic times, the need for waste collection and recycling persists. This positions Resourcify favorably for growth, regardless of potential economic challenges. Moreover, our commitment to providing end-to-end value chain solutions nurtures lasting client partnerships, encouraging our clients to stay with us for the long term.”
Pulsora (formerly known as pulsESG) has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Galvanize Climate Solutions, with participation from Carica Sustainable Investments, Sabancı Climate Ventures, Aramco Ventures, and JetBlue Ventures, along with existing investors FINTOP Capital, Builders VC, and SOMPO Holdings. An “all-in-one platform for enterprise sustainability management,” the San Francisco-based sustainability management startup said in a statement that “with regulators, stakeholders, and consumers demanding more impactful and sustainable business practices, companies face increasing pressure to measure, report, and improve their sustainability and ESG performance.” Murat Sönmez-co-founded and led Pulsora says that it has built “a comprehensive platform that gives today’s leading organizations a centralized system to manage their sustainability business processes—from data collection and disclosures to audit logging and analytics.”
Optera has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Next Frontier Capital with participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Mucker Capital, Overture, Engage, Massive, SaaS Ventures, Valo Ventures, AngelList, and Stout Street Capital. The Boulder, Colorado-based company, which touts itself as a “leader in ESG and carbon management software,” delivers carbon management software that enables companies to reduce the climate impacts of their operations, supply chains, and products. The Tim Weiss-founded and led company said in a statement that the funding “comes at a pivotal time in the sustainability sector as the SEC and EU are establishing climate disclosure rules and businesses across the globe are seeking solutions to help decarbonize and derisk their operations and value chains over the coming decade.” Weiss said, “The biggest businesses around the globe are actively transitioning to the low-carbon economy. It is no longer a question of whether this transition will happen but whether it will happen quickly enough. Optera’s platform enables global companies to quantify and manage their biggest sources of emissions with greater accuracy, confidence, and actionability.”
Refiberd has raised $3.4 million in a Seed round led by True Wealth Ventures, with participation by Better Ventures, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Fashion for Good, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Kubera Venture Capital, Carnegie Mellon University, and the National Science Foundation. The Cupertino, California-based company provides an AI-powered and robotics-based textile recycling system that sorts and recycles unsorted, discarded textiles into new ones. Looking to bring “true textile circularity” to the fashion industry, the Tushita Gupta and Sarika Bajaj-founded company says it can help divert up to 70% of the textile waste stream to high-value recyclers. “Our first goal is to get our technology in the hands of existing sorters and recyclers to have as much of an impact as possible,” Bajaj said in a statement. “Let’s leverage systems that people already have and help the really great players already collecting a ton of textile waste but can’t sort it due to material challenges.”
leonardo has raised €555,000 in a Pre-Seed round led by Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen with participation from eight business angels. The Frankfurt, Germany-based impact measurement startup – which provides software to enable organizations and their capital providers to measure, verify and report their sustainability impact according to recognized global standards – will use the new funds to “accelerate its mission to disrupt the status quo of sustainability reporting through its AI-powered software.” Co-founder and CEO Jan Moellmann said, “We need to develop better and easier-to-use technology built upon scientific standards so that sustainability data can be trusted again.”
nChain, a global leader in Web3 solutions, will invest €2,000,000 in Universal Plastic in exchange for a 20 percent stake in the equity of Universal Plastic, a tech platform that quantifies, audits and notarizes data from plastic waste collections. The parties said in a statement that their “partnership aims to support and enhance Universal Plastic’s technology offerings by licensing nChain’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Universal Plastic intends to leverage nChain’s expertise in Web3 technologies to drive social impact initiatives, firmly positioning themselves at the forefront of sustainable innovation.”
“Our collaboration with Universal Plastics exemplifies our mission to facilitate transparent and trustworthy avenues for companies to honour their environmental commitments. Together, we catalyze positive ecological change by leveraging emerging technologies, enabling companies to embrace environmental stewardship and pave the path to a better world,” Christen Ager-Hanssen, Group CEO of nChain, said in a statement. “This partnership with nChain is a momentous leap toward our threefold vision – restoring marine ecosystems, empowering local communities, and catalysing corporate environmental responsibility. The disruptive potential of Web3 technology aligned with our mission transforms aspirations into realities,” according to Alvaro Bravo Hernandez, CEO of Universal Plastic.
Tailr has raised $700,000 in a new round from Delta Partners, UK-based Haatch, and Enterprise Ireland, along with various angels. The Irish software company, which was founded by Shana Chu, offers cloud-based software to help streamline production, ensure consistent sizing and tackle excessive waste. The SaaS platform, which also enables data to flow in real time between design teams, fabric mills, and factories, will use the new funds to “scale its operations and expand its market reach” in order to “drive sustainable fashion in the garment industry.” Chu said in a statement, “In an era where the fashion industry is grappling with waste and inconsistent sizing, Tailr’s innovative platform offers a comprehensive solution. Our technology empowers clothing brands to streamline production, enhance sustainability, and deliver consistent sizing from season to season.”
IMPACT+ has raised €2 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital Partners. The Paris-based startup, which specializes in measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of digital advertising campaigns, will use the new funds to build its subscription-based platform, extend its proprietary technology research and development team, and accelerate its international expansion. Led by CEO Vincent Villaret, IMPACT+ counts global brands in the CPG, FMCG, luxury, and automotive industries – such as L’Oréal, LVMH, Heineken, BMW, P&G, Danone, and Nestlé – as clients. The company says that it is actively “delivering the new standard in sustainability, providing actionable recommendations on how to reduce the carbon footprint of digital advertising campaigns and measure their efficiency.”
Carbon13 has raised over $2.2 million in a Seed Round from True Ventures and four family offices. The London-based startup, which “selects, supports, and invests in the teams and solutions which will transform our world for a Net Zero future,” will use the new funds to “boost its operations significantly and propel Carbon13’s current and future ventures towards the key target of 400 million tons of decarbonization.” Carbon13 CEO and founder Chris Coleridge said in a statement, “Climate change is not just a scientific challenge, it is not just a business innovation challenge, it is also a people challenge. We have found that remarkable things happen when you bring together some of the world’s most talented people who are all highly motivated by the mission to fight the climate emergency.”
Re-Fresh Global has raised €1.1 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Earlybird’s Vision Lab initiative with participation from Serpentine.vc and angel investors including German real estate investor Frank Dupuis, Nevis and Accenture partner Michael Ulbrich, Encourage Ventures founder Ina Schlie, Ute Zahn, coach and angel investor, and a program of SOSV, IndieBio. The Berlin-based startup – which “brings sustainability innovation into the manufacturing industry” with a patented biotechnology that “transforms textile waste into recycled raw materials” – plans to use the new funds to strengthen its research and development activities to further optimize its SMART-UP URBAN MICROFACTORY process and significantly increase its capacity to process textile waste. In addition, the company says it will intensify its marketing and sales activities to bring its unique solutions to a wider audience and to build new strategic partnerships.
“The introduction of the IBA EU regulation from January 1, 2025, will mark a turning point in textile waste management. However, at Re-Fresh Global, we strongly believe that we should not wait until the future to take action. I am extremely pleased that we have so much support from particularly well-known investors in our project to transform textile waste into valuable resources. Together, we can tackle the challenges and bring about positive change in the industry,” said Victoria Kanar, who co-founded Re-Fresh Global alongside Revital Nadiv.
Global apparel/textile manufacturing and tech conglomerate MAS Holdings has taken a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ™ as part of its Plan for Change initiative to support the development of next-generation fibers. Swiss-based HeiQ AeoniQ GmbH, a subsidiary of the Carlo Centonze-led HeiQ Group, creates cellulosic filament fibers to replace polyester and nylon. In a statement, Sri Lanka-headquartered MAS Holdings says that it is “the first manufacturer to partner with HeiQ AeoniQ™ in their efforts to provide a sustainable alternative to polyester and nylon. The investment is part of the group’s strategy to generate 50 percent of the company’s revenue through sustainable products by 2025, revolutionizing the textile industry with a focus on innovation, sustainable sourcing, and pioneering circularity at scale.” The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Supercritical has raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from RTP Global, Greencode Ventures, MMC Ventures and others. London-based Supercritical “aims to accelerate the urgent scaling of carbon removal technologies by aggregating business demand and innovating with new purchase models” and will use the funding to grow its team, expand its product offering, and acquire additional customers. The Michelle You co-founded and led company said in a statement, “Corporates want to reduce their carbon emissions, but most businesses will never be able to achieve full net zero purely through decarbonisation efforts and require carbon removal to do so. Unlike traditional emissions avoidance offsets that, until today, were the focus of sustainability programs, Supercritical’s marketplace allows corporations to purchase fully qualified carbon removal credits, as set out in the industry standard Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), that allow them to reach net zero.”
Lenzing Group and Södra have received €10 million ($10.9 million) in funding via the “EU Life 2022 Circular Economy and Quality of Life” initiative, which they will use to scale their OnceMore venture, which consists of “an innovative industrial-scale system for recycling blended textile waste by fiber solutions.” Lenzing Group is a Swedish pulp producer, while Södra is a Swedish forest industry group. Åsa Degerman, manager of OnceMore at Södra, said in connection with the grant, “Today only one percent of the world’s textile waste is recycled, putting an enormous burden on the environment. With the help of this significant funding, Södra and Lenzing are ready to provide one of the main solutions in terms of chemical recycling and become the enabler for the circular textile economy.” Meanwhile, Sonja Zak, head of textile sourcing & cooperations at Lenzing Group, said, “As the first project of its kind at large scale, [this initiative] will open new circular business opportunities and increase the proportion of recycled fibers used in new clothing.”
GreenPlaces has raised $13 million in a Series A round led by Redpoint Ventures along with Felicis, Tishman Speyer Ventures, and Bull City Venture Partners. The Raleigh, NC-based “all-in-one sustainability platform” will use the new funds to “fuel its mission to bring sustainability to the mass market where over 83% of global emissions, or an estimated 39 billion tonnes of CO2e, live.” The Alex Lassiter founded and led company said in a statement, “Business leaders today are under an enormous amount of pressure, facing declining profitability, rapidly evolving regulation, and an ever-more environmentally conscious consumer and workforce. Despite rising requirements and expectations, most sustainability teams and budgets are small and increasingly squeezed as businesses are forced to make cuts and focus on the bottom line. GreenPlaces understands that businesses desperately need a practical, straightforward sustainability solution, and in order for it to work for the mass market, it has to be good for business and the planet.”
Unspun has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Lowercarbon with participation from SOSV, Climate Capital, Signia Ventures and MVP Ventures. The Oakland, CA-based robotics and apparel company, which was founded in 2015 by CEO Walden Lam, CPO Beth Esponnette, and CTO Kevin Martin, provides low-impact, on-demand manufacturing solutions to the apparel industry. The funds will be used to support the implementation of Vega, the new 3D weaving technology it says will “help brands realize a zero-inventory, onshored, circular and automated supply-chain for woven products.” From the outset of founding Unspun, “Climate action has been at the very core of our mission,” Lam said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with the most ambitious apparel brands and designers to solve the existential crisis facing the industry, and Vega is an important step on this journey.”
UNCAGED Innovations has raised a $2 million pre-seed round from investors, including InMotion Ventures, JLR’s investment arm, with participation from VegInvest, Stray Dog Capital, Alwyn Capital, Hack Capital, and GlassWalls Syndicate. The New York-based biomaterials startup, which is focused on “sustainable leather alternatives,” will use the new funds to “launch the company’s next-generation high-performance vegan leather, a sustainable alternative to traditional animal products that do not compromise on luxury feel or durability.” The Stephanie Downs-founded and led company said in a statement that it is “redefining the use of leather in consumer and automotive goods” in light of the fact that “the current market landscape for alternative leathers relies heavily on plastic-based materials.”
SustainCERT has raised $37 million in a Series B round from from Partech, Hartree Partners and existing shareholders Citizen Capital, Innovacom and the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. The Luxembourg-based, Marion Verles-led climate impact verification company will use the new funds to support its global expansion efforts and the launch of its new climate impact verification platform, which it says will enable companies to “accurately verify, track and co-claim emission reductions and removals” in order to “tackle the largest source of their carbon footprint – value chain or Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which account for 75% of a company’s carbon footprint on average (rising to as much as 99% for some sectors).”
Ecovative Design has raised $30 million in a Series E round led by Viking Global Investors and includes Standard Investments, FootPrint Coalition Ventures, and AiiM Partners, bringing its total funding raised to $120 million. The new funds will be used to support the New York-based mycelium technology company’s plans to scale its Forager business into a world-class supplier of sustainable textile and foam products. Ecovative stated in a statement that its co-founders Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre created the first mycelium materials and it was the first company to introduce mycelium materials as a commercial category. The company says that it “continues to lead in the commercialization and scaling up of mycelium technologies in industries including fashion and apparel, automotive, food, packaging, and construction.”
Cur8 has raised £5.3 million in a pre-Seed round led by GV (Google Ventures) with participation from CapitalT. The London-based climate tech startup, which “works with the best nature and technology partners to build [carbon] removals portfolios of the highest quality,” will use the mew funds to grow its team, further product development, and scale up its platform’s capacity to serve additional customers and suppliers. Cur8 was founded in 2022 by Marta Krupinska, Gabrielle Walke, and Mark Stevenson, Cur8 aims to reduce “the prices from the the industry-standard set price of £150 per carbon removal, by helping scale the industry and making it more accessible to companies of all sizes.”
Accenture announced its intent to acquire Green Domus Desenvolvimento Sustentável LTDA, a leading Brazil-based sustainability consultancy with experience helping clients design and implement a range of sustainability services with a focus on measurable decarbonization strategies. Green Domus will join Accenture to further enhance its Sustainability Services team. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “With only 7% of global companies on track to meet their net zero targets by 2050, clients across industries are seeking new and improved ways to accelerate their net zero transitions,” Accenture said in a statement. “Green Domus will bring clients solutions to embed carbon data and insights into their decision-making through deep knowledge of sustainability frameworks such as Science Based Targets initiative, voluntary carbon credits and emerging regulatory schemes such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which recently launched in the EU.”
Novisto has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Inovia Capital with participation from Portage Ventures and SCOR Ventures, as well as existing investors White Star Capital and Diagram Ventures. The Montreal, Canada-based ESG data management software company will use the new funds to “accelerate its product development and market expansion.” The company, which is led by co-founder Charles Assaf, said in connection with the round, “As the demand for standardized, audited, and digitized corporate sustainability reporting grows, ESG reporting has become a critical requirement for companies worldwide. With governments such as the European Commission and regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission heeding the call for regulated sustainability-related disclosures, organizations need a structured and organized approach to accurately define and address complex ESG issues, opportunities, and challenges. Novisto’s comprehensive data management platform provides a solution that enables companies to future-proof their ESG data and reporting against more stringent disclosure requirements.”
Waterplan has raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from existing investors, including Giant Ventures & Transition Global (who co-led the seed round), YCombinator, MCJ Collective, and the Branson Family. The San Francisco-based company, which touts itself as “the world’s leading climate platform,” helps companies measure, respond and report increasingly-changing water risk. To date the company has raised $18.5 million in total venture funding. “Both governments and the private sector face existential challenges around how they manage their freshwater supply,” said Jose Ignacio Galindo, CEO and co-founder of Waterplan. “Disruptions are getting more frequent. The world is simply not responding at the pace and the scale that is consistent with the problem. Taking action on water risks is essential for climate action and it makes business sense.”
Lululemon has taken a minority investment in Samsara Eco, an Australian start-up that uses enzyme-based tech to recycle plastics, textiles and other materials in apparel furtherance of its model of “infinite plastic recycling.” Lululemon’s investment comes the heels of a $56 million Australian dollars ($37 million) Series A round last year. Samsara Eco also secured a $2.56 million grant as part of the Australian government’s cooperative research centre projects program earlier this year, and $568,491 from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre’s Commercialization Fund in 2021. In furtherance of the deal with Lululemon, Paul Riley-led Samsara will create what is calls “the world’s first infinitely recycled textiles.”
Lululemon Vice President of raw materials innovation, Yogendra Dandapure, said that by “advancing transforming apparel waste into high-quality nylon and polyester, the would help the company “live our end-to-end vision of circularity.”
Werewool has raised $3.7 million in a seed round led by Material Impact and Sofinnova Partners to “further the company’s mission to produce biodegradable fibers with protein-based color and performance properties.” The company, which characterizes itself as a “pioneer of sustainable performance fibers,” says it will use the new funds to develop its first product, protein fibers that can be spun into yarns, expand manufacturing capabilities, and grow the team. “Our mission as a company is to make the fashion industry compatible with nature,” said Chui-Lian Lee, co-founder and CEO of Werewool. “Our team looks at the textile industry holistically considering the end of life at the beginning of life – our goal is for our fibers to decompose into nutrients for a healthier ecosystem. We are excited to be growing and are looking to fill key leadership roles in the company with people who can contribute to our team’s vision for a truly circular textile economy.”
Tesel has raised £320,000 in a pre-seed round led by Jenson Funding Partners with participation from angel investors. The London, UK-based company, which is led by co-founder CEO Reemah Shanab, provides a B2B software marketplace that puts ESG tracking technology, assessments, consultations, and information in one place to help businesses transparently report their sustainability credentials. Via the platform, buyers and sellers have a clear view of companies’ ESG data across supply chains. The company says the new funds will enable it meet the needs of its “rapidly expanding network of customers and team over the next year.”
Shanab said in a statement: “ESG is quickly becoming a defining factor for commercial success. Reporting will become mandatory, and being able to shout about sustainability is more critical than ever. However, companies often don’t know where to begin or how to navigate such a fragmented market. Tesel aims to demystify ESG for SMEs by putting everything a business needs in one place, from assessments to tracking technology.This makes it simple for businesses to hold onto customers and find new ones.”
FuturePlus has raised £750,000 in a round led by Two Magnolias with participation from Vala Capital, as well as several high-net-worth individuals and family offices, bringing its funds raised (since its launch in February 2022) to over £1.6 million. Founded and led by Alexandra Smith and Mike Penrose, London-based FuturePlus helps companies to manage their sustainability efforts and report on their ESG performance via a range of tools and services, including carbon footprint calculations, supply chain monitoring, stakeholder engagement, and reporting automation. The company will use the new funds to invest in staff capacity, develop its platform, and acquire clients through marketing and PR.
Social Value Portal (“SVP”) has raised £8.5 million in a Series B round led by Mercia with support from existing investor Beringea. With the title of the UK’s “leading platform for measuring and monitoring social impact,” SVP will use the new cash to tap into “growing demand from the public and private sectors, and launch a new Social Value Academy to help educate business leaders and embed social value into business decision making and delivery.” Founded in 2014 by former Deloitte lead sustainability partner Guy Battle, SVP enables companies to attribute a financial measure to their ESG efforts, and also assists them in identifying opportunities to increase their positive impact.
Biodiversity data infrastructure and analytics company Pivotal has raised £4.5 million in a seed round led by Octopus Ventures, with participation from AENU, The Clearing Ventures, and existing investor Pale Blue Dot. Cambridge, UK-based Pivotal will use the new funds to “help reinvent the economics of tracking biodiversity and create a platform to measure biodiversity at scale.” Pivotal, which was founded in 2022 by Cameron Frayling and Zoe Balmforth, uses of a network of human taxonomic specialists, AI, sensors, satellites, and drones, to collect species-level biodiversity data and analytics that are “accurate, quantified, and auditable.”
Canopy has raised $60 million from The Audacious Project funding initiative, which brings together funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ELMA Philanthropies, and Emerson Collective, among others. Vancouver-based environmental nonprofit organization Canopy – which works with textile, fashion, and packaging brands to reinvent their supply chains – will use the funding to “catalyze connections between next-generation textile material innovators and big brands, including H&M, Zara, Penguin Random House, Stella McCartney and LVMH,” by establishing production hubs for textile and paper materials in North America, India, and Europe, with additional plans for expansion in Brazil, South East Asia, and China.
nZero closed a $16 million Series A funding round led by Fifth Wall and an unnamed U.S. energy company, with participation from Piedmont Capital Investments. The new funding will enable the Reno, NV-based near-real-time carbon management and accounting platform to “scale amid a global call for better, more accurate tracking and reporting of energy, financial, and greenhouse gas emissions data across the public and private sectors.” Founded in April 2021, the Adam Kramer-led company has worked with various corporate, agriculture and government entities globally to help them understand their actual carbon impact and develop the most financially efficient and sustainable emissions reductions plans.
Kintra Fibers has raised $8 million in funding in a Series A round, which included H&M Group Ventures, Bestseller’s Invest Fwd, Fashion for Good, New York Ventures, Tech Council Ventures, and Fab Ventures. The Brooklyn, New York-based materials science company, which says that it has developed “the only bio-based and biodegradable polyester,” says it will use the cash to scale its resin and yarn production capacities, among other things.
AMSilk has raised an additional €25 million in an extended Series C funding round led by ATHOS (AT Newtec) with participation from Novo Holdings, Cargill, and MIG Capital. The round comes on the heels of a 2021 Series C, in which AMSilk raised €29 million. The German industrial supplier of bio-fabricated silk protein materials says that it will use the new cash to accelerate industrial scale-up and expand commercial operations of bio-fabricated plant based raw materials that are biodegradable at industrial quantities. According to AMSilk, its proprietary bio-fabricated silk is made from plant-based renewable raw materials that are 100% protein and that does not involve any natural farming processes.
Gen Phoenix, which boasts the title of “the leading producer of sustainable recycled leather at scale, raised $18 million in a new round led by venture capital firm Material Impact, with participation from Dr. Martens, InMotion Ventures, the investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover, and Coach and Kate Spade owner Tapestry. The funding round also includes existing investors ETF Partners and the Hermes GPE Environmental Innovation Fund. The company says it will use the new cash to “bolster growth for the business and further efforts to meaningfully tackle the world’s waste problem.” In particular, it will be focused on “reaching new partners, deepening current relationships, and scaling product innovations.”
Zara-owner Inditex will invest €15 million in non-profit Conservation International to expand and scale the work of the Regenerative Fund for Nature. Launched in 2021 by Conservation International and Kering, the initiative aims to “transform 1 million hectares of crop and rangelands into regenerative agricultural systems by 2026.” Inditex says that the investment “will work to enhance sustainability in the fashion industry, which is fundamentally dependent on agriculture for its raw materials.”
Tex.tracer has raised €1.5 million ($1.59 million) in growth capital from ROM InWest, HearstLab, Joanna Invests, and angel investors. The Amsterdam-headquartered SaaS platform “unlocks insightful supply chain information” for fashion/apparel brands and retailers, enabling them to access “verified data so they can work with suppliers to reach their sustainability goals” and ensure compliance with “upcoming rules and legislation.”
On the heels of closing a $30 million-plus series B round in July 2022 (led by the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and with participation from Zara owner Inditex), Danville, Virginia-based Circ has raised $25 million in a new round led by Zalando with participation from Avery Dennison and Korean outdoor apparel and footwear manufacturer, Youngone. The company – which developed a “technology system that returns clothes back to the raw materials” – will use the new cash to accelerate its engineering expansion and bring its first consumer products to market.
SESAMm has raised €35 million ($37 million) in a Series B2 round co-led by Elaia, a deep tech VC firm, and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas. A leader in natural language processing (NLP), which is a field of AI, SESAMm enables companies to track relevant ESG data by “generating insights for controversy detection on investments, clients and suppliers, ESG, and positive impact scores, among others.” The new funding will enable SESAMm to “further expand into U.S. and Asian markets, support technology development to generate AI-powered ESG and sentiment analytics, and hire key talent across sustainability, technology, sales, and marketing.”
Ever Dye has raised 3.4 million euros ($3.7 million) in funding in a round co-led by Maki.vc and Asterion Ventures with participation from Entrepreneur First. The French startup says it will use the new funds to scale and commercialize its sustainable dyeing process and help the textile industry to lower emissions. “With Ever Dye’s new, novel method, fabrics can be dyed five times faster with fifteen times less energy consumed and without any petrochemicals involved. Our unique green solutions fully fit in existing industrial infrastructures and will reduce the GHG emissions of the textile industry, in addition to conserving water,” Ilan Palacci, the CEO and co-founder of Ever Dye, said.
Grounded People, an emerging sustainable shoe startup, raised $2.5 million from Vancouver-Based Right Season Investments Corp to “expand the company’s involvement in the sustainable fashion movement, and expand their vegan footwear line.” In a release, Grounded People, which was launched in 2020, stated, “The sustainable footwear market is strong and Grounded People is in a strategic position to capitalize with a dedicated consumer base that’s shown high interest in integrating with the brand’s mission to reverse the harmful environmental impact of the global fashion industry.”
Sortile, a startup that touts itself as “empowering the textile industry with solutions to unlock the current challenges for scaling textile recycling,” finalized its seed round, raising $1 million, with participation from Hearst’s Level Up Ventures. Founded in 2021 by Constanza Gomez abd Agustina Mir, Sortile’s AI-driven and data analytics solutions are “designed to enable the fashion industry with textile-to-textile recycling and foster circular fashion with NIR spectroscopy and machine learning to efficiently identify fiber, and providing data analytics capabilities, giving visibility to the waste stream.”
Smartex closed a $24.6 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tony Fadell’s Build Collective on the heels of the Porto, Portugal-based startup winning the 2021 Web Summit PITCH competition. Other investors include H&M Group, DCVC, SOSV’s HAX, Spider Capital, Momenta Ventures, Bombyx Capital Partners, Faber, and Fashion for Good. Founded in 2018, Smartex uses hardware-enabled, machine-vision-driven software to detect defects in textiles are they are being manufactured, enabling companies reduce textile waste, CO2 emissions, energy, water, production time, and capital expenditure by automatically shutting down production in order to prevent the waste of materials.
The company plans to use the new cash expand its business to new markets, and to develop additional product lines designed to aid manufacturers and fashion brands in improving control of their products while increasing textile quality and traceability.
Spanish fast fashion company Mango has invested in Recovo, a B2B marketplace for brands looking to buy and sell leftover – or deadstock – fabrics by way of a convertible note entered into by its StartUp Studio. Barcelona-based Recovo, which was founded in 2021 by former Inditex employees, Mónica Rodríguez and Marta Iglesias, and former Tous employee Gonzalo Sáenz, will use the new funds to expand operations on its platform and its model more broadly, the latter of which sees it use “technology, traceability and community involvement to promote a circular economy.” The terms of the deal have note been disclosed.
Since Patagonia’s founding in 1973, Yvon Chouinard and his family have been its owners. Now, almost 50 years later, the Chouinards are transferring all ownership to two newly created entities in an effort both to cement the company’s values in its operating structure and step up its fight against the climate crisis. All voting stock (about 2% of the total) is now controlled by the Patagonia Purpose Trust, while the other 98% is under what’s called the Holdfast Collective.
Stella McCartney and Collaborative Fund have joined to launch a $200 million fund to invest and support sustainability-focused ventures. Called Collab SOS, the fund will target companies in the fields of decarbonization, food and agriculture, and materials solutions that are raising Series A or B rounds. In a statement, McCartney said of the fund, which also has LVMH backing, “We’ll incubate these technologies, I’ll put them on my runway and then, when they’re ready and the price point is right, we can roll it out and I can say, [to LVMH chief executive Bernard] Arnault, let’s do this.” The funds first investment was in Bolt Threads, the maker of Mylo mushroom leather.
Zara-owner Inditex has participated in a $30 million Series B funding round for circular fashion startup CIRC, led by the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and with additional investment from Milliken & Company and Lansdowne Partners. The 11-year-old textile recycling company, which uses proprietary technology to return clothes to the raw materials from which they were made, says it will use the new cash to “complete its engineering work for larger-scale facilities while continuing commercial launches with key partners, [and to] add core team members in engineering, R&D, management, and business development.”
Touting itself as the creator of “the world’s first fully-molded garment and shoe uppers made directly from a cellulose-based liquid,” Simplifyber, Inc. closed a $3.5 million seed round led by At One Ventures. The company, which was co-founded by Maria Intscher-Owrang, a design veteran of Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Alexander McQueen, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Edun, says that it has “developed a novel approach to clothing and accessory manufacturing that removes traditional spinning, weaving, cutting, and sewing and replaces it with a sustainable, less resource-intensive process, and fully biodegradable solution – cutting out 60% of the steps and reducing the 35% of materials in the fashion supply chain that ends up as waste.” The company will use to funds to scale its its additive manufacturing technology to “bring economically competitive biodegradable garments to market.”
Evolved By Nature, the company creating a proprietary library of molecules from natural silk protein, closed a $120 million Series C financing round to “accelerate development and commercialization of [its] Activated Silk™ molecules and fund the completion of its state-of-the-art production facility.” The round was led by Teachers’ Venture Growth part of the C$242 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, with participation from existing investors including Mousse Partners, Jeff Vinik, The Kraft Group, Roy Disney, and Emerald Development Managers. (Existing investor Chanel, which took a minority stake in the company in 2019, did not participate in the Series C.)
Circulor, which uses blockchain technology to map supply chains for companies “pursuing greener, more sustainable production,” announced a raised $25 million Series B round, led by Westly Group, with participations from the venture arms of Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, and BHP Group. “U.S. industry is increasingly interested in not just origin, but also demonstrating ESG performance because the SEC has made clear that the greenwashing and war of glossy brochures isn’t good enough,” Circulor CEO Douglas Johnson-Poensgen told Reuters, citing regulatory pressure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Johnson-Poensgen stated that Circulor is planning for an initial public offering “in due course.”
Recover, a materials science company and producer of “sustainable, premium recycled cotton fiber and cotton fiber blends,” announced that it has closed a new $100 million minority equity capital investment led by the Sustainable Investing business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs). Goldman Sachs is investing alongside majority shareholder STORY3 Capital Partners. Recover – which counts Primark, Inditex, C&A, Revolve and Lands’ End as clients – will use the investment to accelerate its global expansion and production capacity, allowing more rapid adoption of sustainability initiatives by leading brands and retailers.
H&M Group and Lululemon are among the leading investors in a Fashion Climate Fund spearheaded by nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute. The $250 million fund aims to “support new programs and solutions with a structured pipeline for getting from pilot to scale,” Apparel Impact Institute stated in a release. “We believe it provides a powerful mechanism to overcome the challenges of getting new solutions implemented by the industry, and thereby accelerate the progress on climate action.”
According to Axois, the fund has “attracted $40 million from H&M Group and Lululemon, plus the H&M Foundation and the Schmidt Family Foundation,” noting that further lead partners are expected to each invest a minimum of $10 million over the next eight years.
Gucci-owner Kering is one of the investors in a $46 million Series A round raised by VitroLabs, along with actor Leonardo DiCaprio, agriculture-focused VC Agronomics, Bestseller’s Invest FWD innovation arm, Khosla Ventures, New Agrarian, and Regeneration VC, among others. California-based VitroLabs, which makes cellular-cultivated leather that “replicates the structure of animal hides,” will use the funding to scale-up its operations and expects to start pilot manufacturing this spring.
“At Kering, a chapter/pillar of our sustainability roadmap is dedicated to sustainable innovation and actively looking for alternative materials that can reduce our environmental impact over the long term is part of the solutions we have been exploring for years. We believe that innovation is key to addressing the sustainability challenges that the luxury industry is facing, which is why we are very interested in the potential of biomaterials such as cultivated leather,” Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer at Kering, said in connection with the finding announcement.
Controversial sustainability insights platform for the consumer goods industry Higg has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round. The funding is co-led by technology growth investor Silversmith Capital Partners and Tom Steyer and Katie Hall’s Galvanize Climate Solutions, along with participation by Series A partners Titan Grove and Buckhill Capital. With close to 50,000 brand and manufacturer users in 100+ countries, Higg says that it “enables continuous improvement of supply chain sustainability—across not only carbon but water, energy, and labor impacts as well.” The new cash will accelerate Higg’s “delivery of innovative technology solutions and its rapid expansion into new consumer goods categories.”