French deep-tech startup Ever Dye has announced a €3.4 million seed round led by Maki.vc and Asterion Ventures and joined by Entrepreneur First.
- Ever Dye will now be able to scale up and further commercialise its next-generation, sustainable dyeing process and help the textile industry to lower emissions.
The Solution: Ever Dye has developed a bio-sourced pigment, made of vegetal waste and minerals, that is applied in thirty minutes at room temperature.
- Usually, textiles are put with dyestuffs for hours in autoclaves with temperatures that can reach 130°C, making traditional dyeing processes energy-intensive.
- The startup was awarded the Innovation Prize 2022 from ANDAM, and also selected in the innovation programme of Fashion for Good, a global initiative promoting sustainable fashion.
- Ever Dye has also won over some of the biggest brands in the industry. Most notably, the clothing firm Petit Bateau has been testing Ever Dye’s solution for 12 months in its plant in Troyes, France.
The Context: Dyeing mills use energy that comes mainly from coal or natural gas and thus release a huge amount of CO2.
- In addition, dyeing is directly responsible for 20% of global water pollution.
- To solve this, Amira Erokh, a chemist who developed anti-virus textiles for NATO, and Ilan Palacci, an industrial engineer, founded Ever Dye in 2021.
The Funding: Maki.vc is an investment fund specialising in DeepTech startups, Asterion Ventures is a French VC focused on funding climate tech and impact startups at a pre-seed and seed stage, and Entrepreneur First is where the two Ever Dye founders met.
- The round also includes a portion of non-equity funding from a French investment bank. Ever Dye will now shift its production and dyeing process to a truly industrial scale. Ever Dye aims to complete the world’s first textile dyeing process at room temperature in 2023.
- Ever Dye will also triple its workforce over the next two years.
What They Said:
With Ever Dye's new, novel method, fabrics can be dyed five times faster with fifteen times less energy consumed and without any petrochemicals involved. Our unique green solutions fully fit in existing industrial infrastructures and will reduce the GHG emissions of the textile industry, in addition to conserving water. In short, we have been able to create a truly efficient and functioning sustainable dyeing standard for the global textile industry.
— Ilan Palacci
CEO and Co-Founder
Ever Dye
Fashion is one of the industries most ripe for disruption, and Ever Dye’s technology brings a long-awaited, more sustainable solution to dyeing fabrics. Ever Dye’s solution ticks all the boxes: it is energy efficient and uses sustainable raw materials and can even be applied to existing dyeing infra. No wonder the team has already won over strong industry partners from luxury to high-street fashion brands.
— Paavo Räisänen
Partner
Maki.vc
Innovation has always been at the heart of Petit Bateau's DNA, and Ever Dye fits perfectly with the current challenges of transforming clothing manufacturing processes. Our group is committed to a major decarbonization plan, and the future of textile production includes new resource-saving solutions like the one developed by Ever Dye.
— Thierry Scaglia
Director (Innovation Fabrics)
Petit Bateau
