Participated · Series B · Feb 2024

BlockTexx is a blockchain fashion technology service provider. It has built a blockchain marketplace designed to connect textile manufacturers, retail brands, and logistics providers. The platform is intended to support hybrid textile resource recycling across the fashion supply chain. The company positions itself as a technology service linking supply-chain participants in textiles and retail. Recently BlockTexx completed a Series B financing of $4.57M, as reported in the article. No operating metrics (revenue or users) were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2023

Refiberd builds hyperspectral imaging and AI technology to identify textile fiber composition and enable accurate sorting for recycling. Its system can be integrated into existing recycling infrastructures so materials are processed with the correct methods and turned into new, usable fibers. The product targets the waste-sorting dilemma in fashion to advance textile-to-textile recycling. Refiberd was named eBay's Circular Fashion Innovator of the Year and received mentorship and industry access through the program. CEO Sarika Bajaj said the investment will help close a significant round, expand the technology to new recycling partners, and strengthen the company's AI capabilities. Refiberd is a US business. Refiberd builds hyperspectral imaging and AI systems to identify textile materials and blends to enable accurate sorting for textile-to-textile recycling. The company points hyperspectral cameras at garments, samples dozens to hundreds of bands of light, and uses neural networks plus generative AI to distinguish thousands of textiles and fill gaps in its dataset. Refiberd has assembled a sample library of over 10,000 entries and generates synthetic spectra to improve model accuracy for materials not present in its collection. One camera unit can eventually sort up to 7 million pounds of material, and the startup is targeting pilots with textile companies, chemical recyclers, mechanical recyclers, and textile sorters to refine its product. Founded three years ago by Sarika Bajaj and Tushita Gupta, Refiberd frames its work as a response to the roughly 14 million tons of clothing landfilled or incinerated annually in the U.S. The company will use its recent funding to roll out initial pilots and further develop its hardware and AI models.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2023

Kintra Fibers develops a proprietary bio-based and biodegradable polyester designed to reduce the environmental impact of traditional polyester across its lifecycle. The company has produced 250 kg of resin to date on a pilot line and aims to produce its first ton of resin this year. Kintra is expanding from pilot production to a commercial manufacturing facility and plans to scale by integrating with partner facilities. The Series A funding will expand the company’s resin and yarn production capacities and support its brand partners. Kintra counts frontier brand partners including Reformation, Inditex, H&M, and BESTSELLER. The company is led by CEO Billy McCall and COO Alissa Baier-Lentz.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2022

Smartex has developed machine-vision-driven software that identifies defects in fabric production in real time to stop manufacturing and prevent waste. The system helps factories detect imperfections earlier in the supply chain, reducing downstream rework and product issues. The company positions its product around a sustainability/green angle to make textile production cleaner and more efficient. Co-founder and CEO Gilberto Loureiro draws on personal and professional roots in textile factories and a master’s in physics. Smartex plans to expand into new geographies — highlighting Asian production hubs such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and China — and to grow its team, with a longer-term goal of entering other industries to cut industrial waste. Financially, Smartex raised a $24.7M Series A (valuation undisclosed) and previously raised a $2.9M seed in 2019 co-led by DCVC and Spider Capital. Smartex builds a device with cameras and proprietary AI that monitors fabric within 10 cm of production, detecting defects in real time and signaling machines to stop for adjustment. The system finds defects visible to human inspectors and those invisible to the eye, reducing defective output toward zero. The company positions its product as bringing Industry 4.0 to the $3 trillion textile sector and addressing an estimated $33bn annual raw-material loss from defects. Smartex was founded in 2018 by Gilberto Loureiro, António Rocha, and Paulo Ribeiro, with founders having operated the same types of machines where the solution is installed. The team was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020. Financially, Smartex completed a $2.6M funding round and also secured $2.2M in grant funding from the European Union.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2021

TrusTrace offers a SaaS platform for supply chain traceability and compliance that helps brands and suppliers standardise how supply chain and material traceability data is captured, digitised and shared. The platform provides access to validated supply chain data to help brands identify, understand and improve the impact of their supply chain. Customers use the data for risk management, regulatory compliance, product claims and footprint calculations, and to share information about product origin and impact. Notable customers include adidas, Brooks Running, Tapestry and Asics among other apparel, footwear and luxury brands. The company plans to deepen product innovation, expand collaborations and strengthen its presence in key markets to accelerate global expansion, and intends to offer services to regional and mid-size brands in 2024. TrusTrace is led by CEO Shameek Ghosh. TrusTrace is a Stockholm-based SaaS provider that offers a platform for supply-chain transparency and product traceability across the fashion, food and retail industries. The platform, built on AI, blockchain and BOTS with an open architecture, integrates with retailer, manufacturer and supplier systems as well as third parties such as certification agencies and lifecycle dataset providers. TrusTrace serves more than 40 customers and tracks over 8,000 suppliers, 250,000 products and more than $12 billion worth of goods on its platform. The company’s customers include Fjällräven, Filippa K, Zalando, Decathlon and Coop. The new capital will be used to accelerate global expansion, expand product development and strengthen the team. Founded in 2016 and led by CEO Shameek Ghosh, TrusTrace positions itself to scale enterprise adoption of supply-chain transparency tools.