The textile industry generates 10% of global CO2 emissions & accounts for 20% of water waste. It is known for inefficient production processes, high energy demand & unnecessary transport of goods & people. Netherlands-based, BYBORRE is a “textile innovation company” that seeks to challenge the status quo! The company offers two products: i) “BYBORRE Create” – think of it as a “Photoshop for textiles”; users can design & produce (delivery in just 10 days) advanced knitted fabric, without technical expertise & knowledge about materials (fabrics span 50 colorways with properties like UV protection & odor resistance), knitting techniques (user can opt for rib, intarsia, 3D knit, OTW spinning) or complicated machines, ii) “BYBORRE Textiles”: users that don’t want to develop their “own” knitted fabric, can choose from 17 ready-to-order & responsibly produces textiles (developed by BYBORRE & through collaborations with e.g. Adidas, Nike, North Face). It’s worth mentioning here, that BYBORRE has “heavily invested in automation, material research & data analytics to increase efficiency, productivity & transparency throughout the textile supply chain”. As such, BYBORRE delivers a textile passport (for all textiles via the platform) with detailed info on a) material origin (pushing for localized production to save time & reduce the impact of transportation, as well as reduced sampling & production minimums), b) composition (50% consist of mono material) & c) recyclability (with the former substantially increasing the latter). All this should come in handy, as the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation shifts environmental responsibility to producers & brands (EPR is already mandatory in France & Sweden, with the Netherlands to follow shortly). BYBORRE was founded in 2015 by Arnoud Haverlag (CEO) & Borre Akkersdijk (Chief Creative Officer). Since then, the 50 employee-strong company has rapidly grown its client base across fashion (Woolmark Company, Mayer & Cie, Santoni, Avery Dennison, Indorama) (Parsons School of Design & Fashion Institute of Technology), interior, automotive (BMW), product design (Amsterdam University of Applied Science) & architecture. BYBORRE will use the new funds to accelerate its international growth in key markets such as the US, Scandinavia & Italy. (Sidenote: to much chagrin, but pronging focus, BYBORRE’s own clothing brand “Edition” will be discontinued – so get your swag here whilst limited stocks last). (Ps: in addition to equity investors, Rabobank Startup & Scale-up provided BYBORRE a long-term debt & machine leasing facility). <Source: wwd.com, siliconcanals.com, knittingindustry.com, tlmagazine.com, wallpaper.com, sourcingjournal.com>
