Alchemie Technology, a purveyor of textile dyeing and finishing technology, announced investments from At One Ventures and H&M CO:LAB, H&M Group’s investment arm.
The investment will support Alchemie’s commercial roll-out of its Endeavour smart waterless dyeing and Novara precision digital finishing. With the addition of software services to digitize the supply chain, Alchemie is also enabling the move to fully connected digital manufacturing.
The company said the solution is timely for the industry, as fashion consumers are demanding more accountability from fashion brands to reduce their environmental impact.
“Alchemie Technology is pioneering a truly breakthrough and cost-effective approach to solving a longstanding sustainability issue in the supply chain for textile products,” Nanna Andersen, head of H&M CO:LAB, said. “We are excited to partner with Alchemie and support innovation that addresses some of the largest carbon footprint contributors of the textile industry: dyeing and finishing. The commercial implementation of their game-changing technology not only aligns perfectly with the H&M group’s vision to become fully circular, but also has the potential to benefit the entire textile industry.”
Alchemie’s Endeavour smart waterless dyeing technology allows garment manufacturers to eliminate the production of contaminated wastewater and dramatically reduce the carbon footprint from dyeing. Demonstrated to reduce lead times and enable lower minimum order sizes, alongside a 50 percent cost saving compared to traditional technologies, the Endeavour solution has been well received by textile manufacturers and fashion brands worldwide, the company said.
Related Stories
“The textile manufacturing industry has a significant impact on the environment, and with our Endeavour and Novara technologies, we are disrupting manufacturing processes that are responsible for over 3 percent of global CO2 emissions and 20 percent of global water pollution,” Dr. Simon Kew, managing director of Alchemie Technology, said. “We are building on the momentum we have generated in the market with successful commercial trials of our fabrics and are looking forward to rolling out the first global commercial installations this year.”
Endeavour and Novara are currently available for implementation, and there is a pipeline of additional sustainable fabric finishing innovations progressing to market based on the Novara technology, including ones that deliver eco-friendly, fluorine-free water repellents and advanced bio-based functional finishes.
“This investment reflects the significant acceleration of interest in the modernization and digitalization of global textile manufacturing,” Dr. Alan Hudd, chairman of Alchemie Technology, said. “A combination of government, consumer and brand pressure has delivered an unstoppable impetus for change in the textile industry. We are uniquely poised to deliver the next generation of digital clean-tech textile manufacturing solutions and the market is truly supercharged for change.”
Helen Lin, principal at At One Ventures, said Alchemie has the potential to transform textile manufacturing, “effectively leapfrogging over one of the largest water pollution problems in the world today.”
“We believe that outsized environmental returns can only be achieved when driven by commercial scale and are delighted to be supporting Alchemie to deliver this vision in the textile industry,” Lin said.