AlgiKnit, the company behind the seaweed based yarn, announces investment by Horizons Ventures and Fashion for Good.The global ethical fashion market to reach $8.25 Billion by 2023NEW YORK, USA - 03/25/2021. Today, AlgiKnit, the biomaterials company creating the next generation of environmentally conscious materials, announced it had raised $2.4 million, from investors including Horizons Ventures, Fashion for Good, and SOSV.The fashion industry produces 10% of the world's carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined as of 2019, prior to the pandemic. At this pace, the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions will surge more than 50% by 2030.AlgiKnit is creating kelp-derived, biodegradable fibers and yarns to remediate harmful cycles of fast fashion. The company’s newly engineered fiber is derived from a seaweed called kelp, one of the most renewable organisms on the planet, absorbing CO2 and working against global warming and ocean acidification.AlgiKnit’s fibers and yarns will be used to create functional, cost-competitive textiles. Their goal is to develop a renewable alternative to widely-used resource intensive and highly-polluting fibers such as polyester and nylon.Versatile and scalable, the yarns can be used across the fashion industry, in particular within the fields of footwear, accessories, and garments. Other applications of the fibers could be integrated into packaging and home furnishings.Over the past 2 years, AlgiKnit has significantly increased their scaling efforts and product development capacity. Additionally, with a growing team, AlgiKnit has alsoexpanded their lab and office space to accommodate new equipment, hires, and research capabilities. This fundraise marks the latest milestone in further acceleratingAlgiKnit’s company growth to propel them to the next stage of development and ultimately bring them closer to market.Making the announcement, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Tessa Callaghan said: “It’s not enough to be sustainable, functionality is paramount. We want to be both the easy and sustainable choice for designers, manufacturers and consumers.”As young creatives with a passion for the environment, co-founders Aaron Nesser, Aleksandra Gosiewski, and Tessa Callaghan met at a student competition where scientists, artists, and designers work to envision, create, and critique transformational applications of biotechnology. Their goal was to create a material as ubiquitous and functional as polyester that wouldn't be harmful for the environment. Further, they wanted to make the environmental option easy for everyone.Their research led them to win the Biodesign Challenge Summit, where students competed to create the most inventive biomaterials, which triggered brands to reach outto them. Nesser says, “that is when we realized we had something.” Nesser, Gosiewski, and Callaghan founded AlgiKnit in 2017.AlgiKnit is already in conversation with a major fashion luxury house as well as a number of other well known brands.“We see the urgent need for new biomaterials for the fashion industry; consumers, manufacturers, and brands are waiting for REAL solutions. AlgiKnit’s kelp-derived biodegradable yarn, is a truly promising alternative for a better planet ” said Wayne Cheng from Horizons Ventures.
AlgiKnit is a biomaterials company built by designers and backed by science to create new methods of textile production. The company is creating durable yet degradableyarns from kelp, one of the most renewable organisms on the planet. AlgiKnit is providing a scalable and sustainable alternative for designers, manufacturers andconsumers by utilizing materials with a significantly lower environmental footprint than conventional textiles. The company was founded in 2017, and is based in the New York City Metropolitan area.Previous investors include SOSV (Perfect Day, GPS Food Group, Jump) and Horizons Ventures (Impossible Foods, Spotify, Zoom). The company plans to continue scalingtheir production until they can offer sustainability in a price accessible and simple way that would make the fabric ubiquitous. Further details are available at https://www.algiknit.com.
Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Mr. Li Ka-shing, is a leading investor in some of the world’s most innovative companies and disruptive technologies, including Facebook, Spotify, Siri, Impossible Foods, Perfect Day, Zoom, Varden and Xampla. For more information, please visit http://horizonsventures.com
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