Dive Brief:
- Infinited Fiber Company has completed a two-part financing round totaling 40 million euros, or about $43.8 million at current exchange rates, according to a news release last week.
- Part of the funding comes from new investors in the fashion and tech startup, including Zara parent company Inditex, and existing investors, including the H&M Group and Adidas.
- The investment comes less than a month after Renewcell, an Infinited Fiber competitor in the textile recycling space, filed for bankruptcy and said it was unable “to secure sufficient financing.”
Dive Insight:
When Sweden-based Renewcell announced its bankruptcy, its chairman Michael Berg said “it was a testament to the lack of leadership and necessary pace of change in the fashion industry.” This is a marked contrast to Infinited Fiber CEO Petri Alava’s more upbeat view of the textile industry.
“[This investment] underscores the industry’s confidence in our technology as one of the key enablers for circularity in the textile sector,” Alava said in the release.
Founded in 2016 and based in Finland, Infinited Fiber harvests cellulose from textile waste comprised of at least 88% cotton to make Infinna, its proprietary fiber.
The first part of the latest funding round closed in summer 2023, according to the release, and included investors Bestseller, Zalando, VTT Ventures, Security Trading and Nidoco AB.
Other new investors for this round include TTY Management BV, an asset management firm owned by Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing. Youngone and Goldwin also became investors during the round.
The largest shareholders of Infinited Fiber are now Inditex, TTY Management and the H&M Group, according to the release.
H&M Group is also one of Renewcell’s shareholders.
It contributed to Renewcell’s most recent funding round in December 2023 with 45 million Swedish krona, about $4.4 million, to help the company with short-term liquidity needs prior to its bankruptcy.
Spokespeople for Infinited Fiber and Renewcell didn’t immediately respond to Fashion Dive’s request for comment.
Infinited Fiber and Renewcell aren’t the only companies in the alternative material fashion space with conflicting lifecycles. While some companies that make leather alternatives from mushrooms, including Mycoworks, Ecovative Design and Gozen, have recently generated new funding for their businesses, Bolt Threads paused production of its mushroom material after struggling to fundraise.
