Helsinki-based VC firm Maki Ventures co-leads French deep-tech startup Ever Dye‘s seed round together with Asterion Ventures, the Parisian investment fund dedicated to impact startups. Entrepreneur First, the UK-based global talent investor, also joined the €3.4 million seed round. The French startup develops a novel chemical process allowing dyeing mills to dye textiles faster, using less energy and without petrochemicals. Ever Dye’s innovative, sustainable dyeing process is set to revolutionize the textile industry, as a new investment paves the way for the company to expand and bring its emission-reducing solution to the masses.
Maki.vc is a Nordic seed-stage venture capital fund with 180M€ assets under management, currently investing from fund II of 100M€. Maki.vc invests in deep tech & brand-driven companies across consumer and enterprise spaces, with a sweet spot for scientific advances, strong IP, and deep customer understanding. Companies that Maki.vc has invested in include Spinnova, Ultimate.ai and IQM Quantum computers.
Ever Dye was founded in 2021 in France by Ilan Palacci and Amira Erokh as a deep-tech startup developing an innovative dyeing process combined with a bio-sourced pigment to depollute the textile industry. The company’s mission is to create a new standard in textile dyeing with beautiful and sustainable colours that meet the industry’s quality requirements.
Cleaning up the textile industry has turned out to be a significant environmental issue. 52% of the textile industry’s GHG emissions come from dyeing (Fashion For Good and Apparel Impact Institute, 2021). In order to produce, 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 (The World Bank, 2019). 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.
Ever Dye has developed a new novel 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.
“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”, explains Ilan Palacci, the CEO and co-founder of Ever Dye. “In short, we have been able to create a truly efficient and functioning sustainable dyeing standard for the global textile industry.”
To follow up on the initial phase of success and commercialize their solution further, Ever Dye announced today their new 3.4 million euro investment from Maki.vc – an investment fund specialising in DeepTech startups, Asterion Ventures – a French VC focused on funding climate tech and impact startups at a pre-seed and seed stage, and Entrepreneur First where the 2 founders met. The round also includes a portion of non-equity funding from a French investment bank.
With the new funding, Ever Dye will shift its production and its dyeing process to a truly industrial scale. Ever Dye aims to complete the world’s first textile dyeing process at room temperature in 2023. Having raised the funding, Ever Dye will also triple its workforce over the next two years.
“We are now focused on boosting our solutions technical development and building partnerships with major players in the industry to supply them with the natural ingredients they need to meet consumers’ sustainability expectations”, concludes Palacci.
More than ever before, Ever Dye is laying the foundation for its goal: to become the sustainable dyeing standard for the global textile industry.
“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,” says Maki.vc’s Partner Paavo Räisänen.
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