Fashion-tech startup unspun has announced that it has raised $32m in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. The funding will facilitate the scaling of its 3D weaving technology, Vega.
The startup’s technology reportedly takes thousands of yarns and weaves them into garments “in minutes,” which, the company said, allows for “almost” zero-waste, on-demand manufacturing.
The startup said that the technology allows traditional cut-make-trim facilities to vertically integrate operations, with production that is four times faster, with a 53 per cent reduction in emissions, a 49 per cent reduction in energy demand, and a 39 per cent reduction in blue water consumption.
The tech also results in less than 3 per cent cut waste, compared to the industry average of 15 per cent, according to the company.
Indeed, the fashion industry’s environmental footprint has long been the elephant in the room, accounting for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, significant levels of pollution and many other environmental harms.
Overproduction is also a serious and ongoing issue. In fact, between 15 to 45 billion clothes go unsold each year. Meanwhile, estimates are that, globally, 92 million tonnes of textile waste are produced each year.
“Overproduction has long been a taboo in fashion. It is now recognized by top-tier climate-funds as a key issue to urgently solve for the industry,” commented Walden Lam, CEO of unspun.
The funding round was led by DCVC, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, E12, Decathlon and SOSV, it was shared.
“We are overwhelmed with the enthusiasm, and excited to be partnering with DCVC, Lowercarbon, SOSV climate, Decathlon and many commercial partners to urgently scale Vega™ to localize apparel manufacturing across North America and Europe,” added Lam.
unspun shared that the funding will enable the company to scale operations through licencing its technology to established manufacturing partners in Europe.
This comes against a backdrop of new EU rules targeted at cutting textile waste.
The B-corp noted that it has signed multi-year agreements with multiple retailers, such as Walmart, to deploy its Vega machines for localised production in both North America and Europe.