Xefco Secures $10.5M for Greener Fashion
Australian sustainable tech company Xefco announced a $10.5 million funding round to tackle textile industry pollution.
Led by deep tech investor Main Sequence, the funds will support the development of Xefco's innovative water-free dyeing solution, Ausora, and expand the company's team.
The textile industry is a major polluter, with dyeing and finishing contributing significantly to water pollution and carbon emissions.
Xefco's CEO, Tom Hussey, says “The existing wet processes used to put colour and other functional properties on fabrics have the biggest environmental footprint of the entire fashion supply chain. These outdated, resource-intensive operations have not changed in centuries. It’s destroying our waterways and our planet. We’re determined to create a greener supply chain for the fashion industry,”
Xefco, founded in 2018, has already made its mark with its highly successful product, XReflex, which is currently being utilised by industry leaders such as Zara and The North Face. The company's innovative new product, Ausora, employs a revolutionary shower plasma process to dye textiles without water, ensuring that they retain their desired appearance, texture, and performance.
Ausora works with various materials and integrates seamlessly into existing production lines. Xefco is partnering with major sportswear, outdoor, and fashion brands to pilot Ausora.
“Our Ausora systems have been designed to plug and play into existing supply chains to help brands and manufacturers easily transition to a cleaner textile process. Dyeing and finishing drive the biggest impacts in the textile supply chain. Whereas, compared to conventional wet dyeing and finishing, our process eliminates the use of water and cuts energy, chemical consumption and cost. Our technology has the potential to stop millions of tonnes of waste entering our waterways and CO2 from entering our planet,” added Hussey.
Xefco's impactful work has garnered recognition and grants, including support from Deakin University and the Australian government. The company also participated in Cicada Innovation's Tech23 event.
Main Sequence investment manager Jun Qu highlights the importance of Xefco's solution: “Xefco addresses an often-overlooked element of the fashion supply chain, one that is critical to global climate repair. There’s no sustainable future without sustainable fashion and we see immense potential for Xefco to accelerate the decarbonisation of the global textile industry.”
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Source: Xefco
