Europe’s Zalando invests in textile firm Infinited Fiber Company

Zalando, Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, has invested in the circular fashion and textile technology group Infinited Fiber Company. The company will use the proceeds to prepare for building its flagship factory in Finland to meet the demand from global fashion and textile brands for its regenerated textile fibre Infinna.

Both companies are also signing a letter of intent that includes Zalando providing raw materials to Infinited Fiber Company in the future and Zalando using the regenerated Infinna fibre for its private label production, the two companies said in a media release.

The investment has completed a funding round recently led by H&M Group, in which Adidas and Bestseller’s investment arm Invest FWD A/S also took part.

Zalando, Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, has invested in the circular fashion and textile technology group Infinited Fiber Company. The company will use the proceeds to prepare for building its flagship factory in Finland to meet the demand from global fashion and textile brands for its regenerated textile fibre Infinna.

Infinited Fiber Company’s technology turns cellulose-based raw materials, like cotton-rich textile waste, into Infinna, a unique, premium-quality regenerated textile fibre with the natural, soft look and feel of cotton. Infinna is biodegradable, contains no microplastics, and at the end of their life, garments made with it can be recycled in the same process together with other textile waste.

Infinited Fiber Company co-founder and CEO Petri Alava said: “We are delighted to welcome Zalando as a new strategic investor into our circle of partners, and see their commitment as further indication of the fashion industry’s strong belief in our innovation. Zalando’s vast brand portfolio and circularity initiatives provide a great basis to deepen our collaboration and to secure feedstock for our flagship plant.”

Zalando Co-CEO David Schneider said: “We want to be part of the solution for a more sustainable fashion industry. With the investment in Infinited Fiber Company, we initiate a collaboration with a circular technology innovator to grow the industry share of textiles recycled into new textiles, which currently sits at only one per cent.”

Zalando has previously teamed up with sustainable fashion innovation platform, Fashion for Good, and the Berlin-based startup, circular.fashion, to develop the redeZIGN for Circularity capsule collection and with the Ellen MacArthur foundation to accelerate a circular economy in fashion.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)