Paris-headquartered Lectra is to acquire 51% of the capital and voting rights of the Dutch company TextileGenesis for €15.2 million in January next year, with the acquisition of the remainder of the company planned to take place in two stages, in 2026 and 2028, for an amount that will be calculated based on multiples of 2025 and 2027 revenues.
Founded in 2018, TextileGenesis provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform enabling fashion brands and sustainable textile manufacturers to ensure a reliable, secure and fully digital mapping of their textiles – from the fibre to the consumer – to guarantee authenticity and origins.
This enables customers to meet the demands for transparency driven by changes in legislation in a growing number of countries and by growing consumer awareness. The traceability mechanism – which addresses both ends of the textile value chain, as well as its network of partners for material certification – and its technology platform, guarantee the exchange and tracking of reliable and secure data throughout a material’s life cycle.
Several of the world’s leading fashion brands and sustainable fibre producers are already convinced of the value of the TextileGenesis platform which enables the connection of multiple players to establish a sustainable fashion ecosystem.
“Fashion is one of the most fragmented industries due to its long and complex value chain, which makes it opaque to brands, suppliers, subcontractors and consumers” says Amit Gautam, founder of TextileGenesis. “Today, only 19% of fashion industry actors have visibility of their value chain, and this is often partial. Many brands, especially those that have set ambitious sustainability goals, face a real challenge in terms of supply chain transparency. If they cannot track the life cycle of certified materials, they will not be able to justify the sustainability of their products.”
“Having the highest ethical standards, guaranteeing the well-being of our employees, and preserving the environment guide our daily decisions,” adds Daniel Harari, chairman and CO of Lectra. “Through our technology, acquisitions and partnerships, we aim to empower our customers to work in a more socially and environmentally responsible way. We look forward to joining forces with the talented team at TextileGenesis to accelerate the development of the company’s sustainable material traceability solution and deepen our knowledge of the textile value chain in the fashion industry.”
Expansion
Lectra provides industrial intelligence solutions – software, equipment, data and services – to the fashion, automotive and furniture markets.
Following its acquisition of competitor Gerber Technology in June 2021, Lectra quickly followed up with the acquisition of fellow French company Neteven.
Neteven has developed amother SaaS platform which enables brands to simplify and effectively monitor the distribution of their products on the world’s largest online marketplaces. The platform centralises the brand’s product catalogue and information on stock levels, sales prices and orders, in order to automate and facilitate distribution on online marketplaces.
In order to further strengthen its software portofolio, in September 2021 Lectra acquired Romanian company Gemini CAD Systems, the developer of several software solutions for small and medium-sized fashion companies with a network of partners and presence in over 60 countries.
Founded in 1973, with 2,500 employees globally, Lectra reported revenues of €388 million in 2021 and has set a revenue target of between €514-534 million for 2022. For the first nine months of 2022 it reported revenues of €392.1 million, up 50% on the same period in 2021.
