Amsterdam-based BYBORRE, a textile innovation company, announced on Monday that it has raised €16.9M in a Series B round of funding led by Invest-NL and VP Capital.
Existing investors SHIFT Invest and the Amsterdam Climate and Energy Fund (AKEF), also joined the round along with Charlie MacGregor (The Social Hub), Henk Jan Beltman (Tony Chocolonely), Patrick Munster (Scotch & Soda, Marie-Stella-Maris, Salle Privée), Bram de Zwart & Brian Garret (Hubs), Joris Pol (MediaMonks), and Geert-Jan Smits (Flinders).
Rabobank’s scale-up team provided a long-term loan and lease facility.
The Dutch company says it will use the funds to accelerate international growth in key markets such as the United States, Scandinavia and Italy, and strengthen its position as a platform for sustainable textiles.
BYBORRE will also use the capital to develop its platform, its design tool BYBORRE Create, the ready-to-order library BYBORRE Textiles, and expand its network of partners from the textile industry.
BYBORRE: What you need to know
Borre Akkersdijk and Arnoud Haverlag founded BYBORRE in 2015 to offer the opportunity to develop better and more responsible textiles for everyday products.
Borre Akkersdijk says, “We are challenging the old model by coming up with new solutions for textile design and production. The demand for textiles continues to grow and with it the need to bring together positive impact, commercial feasibility and creative freedom in a sustainable way.”
BYBORRE is a textile studio working on aesthetics, functionality, technology, and material research.
The company aims to improve the entire textile creation cycle and production processes worldwide by inviting other brands to work with the platform and discover new ways to create quality, custom, and sustainable textiles.
The company’s Textile Development Kit allows designers, artists, and creators to use its sustainable building blocks, industry innovations, and creative tools to twist textiles into their own aesthetic, requirements, and style.
The company’s products include:
BYBORRE Create: It offers the possibility and creative freedom to design advanced (3D) knitted fabric without the necessary technical expertise and knowledge about material, knitting techniques, or complicated machines.
BYBORRE Textiles: The textile packages are made with responsible materials, of which approximately 50 per cent consists of monomaterial, which means that the textile is made from a single raw material to substantially increase recyclability.
The Dutch company claims that since the introduction of BYBORRE Create and BYBORRE Textiles, the customer base of well-known and emerging brands and makers in fashion, interior, automotive, architecture, product, and design have used the services and tools.
BYBORRE has signed strategic partnerships with market leaders such as The Woolmark Company, Mayer & Cie, Santoni, Avery Dennison, and Indorama, and training institutes such as Parsons, Fashion Institute of Technology, and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
The Investor
Invest-NL is an impact investor committed to businesses and projects that will make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative.
The platform focuses on major social issues such as the transition to a carbon-neutral and circular economy, affordable and accessible healthcare, and deep tech.
Rinke Zonneveld, CEO of Invest-NL, says, “Invest-NL is pleased with its first investment in the textile industry, one of the most polluting industries in the world. BYBORRE’s groundbreaking platform technology and services enable a transparent ecosystem and have tremendous potential to transform both textile design and manufacturing. By enabling this frontrunner to scale up quickly, we believe it can play an important role in accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral and circular economy.”
Source: https://siliconcanals.com/