The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Jul 2026

Syntetica has developed a novel approach to recycling two hard-to-separate nylons—Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6—into pellets that can be used by manufacturers to make yarn. The company was co-founded by CEO Marco Bertone and chemistry researcher Louis Monsigny and has built early industrial partnerships, including with Michelin’s Centre for Sustainable Materials and apparel makers such as Lululemon, Victoria’s Secret and Etam. Syntetica does not produce finished textiles itself; instead it supplies recycled pellets to downstream manufacturers like MAS Holdings. The startup has received public backing from Bpifrance’s Ecotechnologies 2 fund and support from the European Innovation Council alongside private investors including EQT Ventures and SWEN Capital Partners. With its Series A funding, Syntetica aims to demonstrate production at the scale of hundreds of tons per year and then expand by building facilities near waste sources and textile production hubs. The team has added technical leadership and industry advisors to support scaling and commercialization.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2016

OMsignal develops functional smart apparel and biometric textile technology, including the OMbra smart sports bra and the biometric system behind the OMrun running app. Its proprietary smart textile and software platform also powers apparel collections such as Ralph Lauren’s PoloTech. The company received US$10M in growth financing and intends to use the funds to bring OMbra to consumers worldwide and to further its market and technological leadership in smart apparel. Stephane Marceau is CEO and Co-Founder and Joanna Berzowska is Head of Electronic Textiles. OMsignal supplies technology to apparel brands and focuses on integrating electronics into clothing to deliver actionable health and activity insights. The company is based in Montreal, Canada. OMsignal designs biometric smartwear that monitors fitness performance, health and wellness via sensors embedded in the fabric. Its flagship product is a collection of shirts that connect to a small electronic module and send activity, physiological stress and fitness data to a mobile app in real-time. The company was founded in 2011 by Frédéric Chanay and Stéphane Marceau, who serves as CEO. OMsignal is based in Montreal, Canada. It raised $10m in Series A funding and will use the proceeds to continue scaling operations. OMsignal is a Montreal-based developer of bio-sensing clothing designed for everyday wear. Led by CEO Stéphane Marceau, the company’s apparel acquires and filters physiological signals from the body and connects with mobile devices. OMsignal delivers information and actionable insights to consumers, health and medical practitioners, and researchers across human-related fields. The system captures data including ECG, activity and respiration rhythms, and provides a measure of tension level or emotive states. Financially, the company completed a $1M seed financing. OMsignal plans to open its bio-sensing apparel platform to external parties this summer.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2015

Athos builds smart training apparel that measures muscle performance using EMG, plus heart rate and acceleration, and streams data to users' mobile devices with actionable insights. Since launching its first product six months ago, the company has gained notable traction with consumer users and elite sports performance institutes. Its garments are used in training regimens at ProActive and Fast Twitch and by athletes including Karl Anthony Towns, Clay Matthews and Elvis Dumervil. Athos commercialized EMG technology previously limited to clinical and elite settings by embedding it in comfortable workout gear. The company says it will continue to innovate its wearable fitness technology, scale to meet increasing consumer demand, and grow its team. Recent hires include Don Faul (COO) and Rose Yao (VP of Product). ATHOS develops next-generation performance apparel that invisibly embeds electromyography (EMG) sensors into compression garments to measure muscle activity, effort, heart rate and breathing. The sensors contain on-board electronics and intelligence and communicate workout data to a user’s mobile device via Bluetooth. The company has signed agreements with two Tier 1 manufacturers, including a multi-billion-dollar garment manufacturer and a leading hardware manufacturer, to scale production using a new manufacturing process. ATHOS plans to use new funding to further commercialize its product and invest in scaling manufacturing and marketing. Products were scheduled to begin shipping in fall 2014 with pre-orders available, positioning the company for consumer market rollout. The technology originated from an advanced engineering project at the University of Waterloo and the company emphasizes comfort, style and durability in its apparel. Athos develops compression workout garments with integrated, non-adhesive EMG sensors and a small core module that wirelessly transmits muscle, heart-rate and breathing data to a mobile app. The first upper-body apparel includes 14 muscle sensors plus a sensor pair for heart rate and breathing; the system also includes a 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis magnetometer, Bluetooth 4.0 and about 10 hours of core battery life. Garments are water-, sweat- and Gatorade-resistant and machine-washable; design was done in partnership with Branch. Athos charges $99 per piece of clothing and $199 for the core, is accepting pre-orders, and planned availability in spring 2014. The company holds two issued patents and has filed additional applications, and its product is being tested by professional athletes and trainers. Founders Dhananja Jayalath and Christopher Wiebe built the product after leaving job offers and expanded the team to include Joel Seligstein, neuroscientist Julie Desjardins, and Hamid Butt; the team was incubated in Social+Capital’s Palo Alto space.