Circ raises $25 million in additional funding

Virginia-based textile recycling company, Circ, has raised US$25 million in funding with support from European online fashion platform Zalando and global materials science and digital identification solutions company Avery Dennison.

Specifically, any mixture of polyester and cotton can be separated and recovered from waste clothing using a technology created by Circ. In July of last year, the company raised an initial $30 billion through a Series B funding round, with Marubeni and Milliken & Company as sponsors.

Zalando, Avery Dennison, Youngone, the owner of a number of well-known outdoor brands in South Korea, and more investors have now contributed an additional $25 million.

With this most recent financing, Circ will be able to develop industrial-scale facilities more quickly and bring its first consumer items to market.

Peter Majeranowski, CEO of Circ, said that leadership from significant stakeholders in the textile sector, the financial community, as well as technology pioneers, is required to transform the fashion economy. The Circ team is made up of a broad set of industry leaders from the US, Europe, and Asia in the fields of engineering, manufacturing, and retail, in addition to their workers. They both agree that the fashion business needs to move toward a more sustainable future. They improve their capacity to break the expensive and avoidable cycle of clothing waste with each fundraising round and growth in their partner network.

David Schneider, Co-CEO of Zalando, said that with the investment in Circ, they are contributing to an emerging infrastructure for circularity that will eventually help Zalando, and the fashion industry at large, to move away from a take-make-waste model. They are excited about the potential of Circ to contribute to this vision. They want to be a sustainable fashion platform with a net-positive impact on people and the world.

Avery Dennison is collaborating with Circ and other supply chain partners to develop a solution for the take-back and sorting of garbage at scale using intelligent labeling in clothing.