It’s a road to progress of innovation in textiles, fashion and technology combined. India is on a roll, making headway, finding answers to current issues.
Five Indian innovators among nine, have been selected for the second batch of Fashion for Good’s South Asian Innovation Programme.
This global selection of start-ups have solutions crucial to the manufacturing and supply chains in South Asia. They focus on innovation and technology associated with raw materials and packaging, to name a few. Modifying the industry to navigate towards a more sustainable, circular system.
The nine selected innovations are: –
Bagrotec (Indonesia — Raw Materials) – initiates and executes various sustainable bamboo processing projects for textile fibre production. Using a proprietary process, bamboo is mechanically processed before enzymes are applied to naturally produce organic bamboo fibre.
Biomize (India — Raw Materials) – this technology makes bamboo and agri-waste based granules that can be drawn into textile fibres and fabrics. It’s an alternative to plastic. It is home compostable certified. Uses in fashion, medical and industry.
KB Cols Sciences (India — Wet Processing) – By exploring various renewable resources, natural colours can be extracted to be applied in textiles and other applications. Change can be bought in dyeing techniques of fashion industry by utilizing the possibilities of biotechnology.
Lucro (India — End of Use) – Produces high quality, innovative and recycled plastic waste to remake products. Making plastic sustainable and aiming to close the loop. It caters to big industries like retail, FMCG and automotive. Products are exported to the US and Europe.
Nordshield (Finland — Wet Processing) – Provides anti-mould, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and insect repellency finishes. Uses natural resources such as waste from the forestry industry, which are free from heavy metals. Easy to apply both during production and as a post-treatment. Products can retain the anti-microbial effect even at extremely high temperatures and after more than 60 washes.
Phabio (India — Packaging) – Offers bioplastic solutions made from biodegradable polymers. Renewable biomass obtained from waste in the beer, dairy and sugar industries, as well as food waste and sea weeds are used. Agricultural waste, used plastic bottles and other containers are also made of using micro-organisms.
Phool (India — Raw Materials) – Upcycles floral waste from temples and mosques in India with their flowercycling technology to make florafoam. Its 100% biodegradable, compostable, high-performing and inflammable. An alternative to Styrofoam. In addition, bio-leather ‘Fleather’ is also produced from the floral waste.
PoshaQ (India — Digital Acceleration) – A computer vision AI startup focused on product discovery and sales conversion within the fashion and retail sector. They provide retail and warehouse automation, data intelligence and cataloging, and quality control with image processing.
Swatchbook (USA — Digital Acceleration) – A cloud platform revolutionizing the exploration, visualization and sharing of materials. The platform enables suppliers to upload their materials along with other metadata and pricing details for brands to further explore, discover and visualize materials, sharing them with other stakeholders for further use.
