BlockTexx Closes $4.5M Series B Funding
BlockTexx has raised 7 million Australian dollars (roughly $4.57 million) in Series B funding.
The Australian fashion technology firm that connects textile manufacturers, retail brands and logistics providers through a secure, blockchain-enabled marketplace “turns waste into a resource” by employing its proprietary technology to separate blended polyester and cotton materials—like clothing—into high-value raw materials.
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The firm will use the funding to scale blended textile resource recovery technology.
Blocktexx’s co-founders Adrian Jones and Graham Ross, noted seed investors Mike and Sue Gregg, as well as global alternative investment management firm Artesian Investments, participated in the funding round.
Mike Gregg, for one, acknowledged that textile waste is a problem “without a solution,” though Blocktexx has been “relentless” in developing real-world technology to address that problem.
“Graham and Adrian have built a strong business model and are doing what they promised: diverting textiles from landfill,” Gregg said. “Investment in advanced manufacturing needs patient capital, especially in developing industries. Blocktexx’s founders have used capital very efficiently.”
The startup, which is an alumnus of Fashion for Good’s 2020 South Asia Innovation accelerator, also welcomed the Amsterdam-based sustainable innovation platform to the fold of investors.
“Having worked with Blocktexx over the last few years, Fashion for Good is excited by the opportunity to now also support them as a capital partner,” Frans Jooste, Fashion for Good’s investment manager, said. “The company has shown great promise in establishing itself in local regions and, combined with Fashion for Good’s ongoing strategic support, we look forward to seeing the business grow within the global textile industry.”
Blocktexx said it operates an end-to-end ecosystem for unwanted textiles, with Australia-wide collection, decommissioning and shredding through to processing and remanufacturing into new products. The startup remanufactures textile waste into new products through fiber-to-fiber, fiber-to-product or fiber-to-agriculture methods.
Its S.O.F.T. (separation of fiber technology) process is for hard-to-recycle clothing blends, housed in the company’s commercial-scale textile recovery facility in Loganholme, Queensland. The funding will be used to expand that facility’s current stage one capacity of 4,000 tons per annum (TPA) to stage two of 10,000 TPA.
“Over the last five years we have developed, commercialized and are now scaling our S.O.F.T. process,” Ross said. “This new investment accelerates two things: our ability to meet the market demands for our remanufactured products—Polytexx and Celltexx—and our ability to take our end-of-life textile solution to the world.”
