Unspun Raises $14M for On-Demand 3D Weaving Tech
The fashion tech firm Unspun is expanding from body-scanning technology into 3D weaving manufacturing.
The Collina Strada collaborator announced the close of a $14 million Series A funding round Thursday led by Lowercarbon, with participation from Climate Capital, SOSV, Signia Ventures and MVP Ventures. The funding will support the implementation of Vega, the new 3D weaving technology it says will “help brands realize a zero-inventory, onshored, circular and automated supply-chain for woven products.”
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“Unspun is the best way to reduce emissions across the fashion industry,” Lowercarbon partner Shuo Yang said in a statement. “It’s a technology that brands can get excited about, as it resonates with the massive wave of climate conscious consumers yet doesn’t require the industry to sacrifice quality, speed, or cost to scale. unspun is going to win because it’s going to be the most competitive way to make clothes period.”
According to Unspun co-founder Waldem Lam, this represents the first major investment in the fashion space from Lowercarbon, a sustainability-minded investment firm that has invested in everything from electric passenger planes to carbon-sinking robots. The funding signals “increasing awareness that apparel plays a role in how the climate equation works out,” he said.
Unspun has already secured multi-million-dollar contracts to scale its Vega operations, and is piloting with four to five brands, with partners to be announced “in the coming months,” it said. Unspun plans to launch consumer products and “several” partnerships later this year. It intends to build its first “micro-factory” in Oakland, Calif., “in the coming months.” The location will host “several” of the new Vega machines, each of which can crank out a pair of denim, chinos or other woven pants in under 10 minutes, Unspun said, and produce 20,000 garments a year.
The company envisions brands using the “drop-in, modular” Vega system to set up micro-factories for localized and automated production, reducing transport costs and emissions, while also creating a shorter and more agile supply chain with little to no inventory. These benefits, it said, will make manufacturing more sustainable and cost efficient.
“From the first day of founding Unspun, climate action has been at the very core of our mission,” Lam said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with the most ambitious apparel brands and designers to solve the existential crisis facing the industry, and Vega is an important step on this journey.”
Vega has both consumer-facing and business-to-business applications, Lam told Sourcing Journal. Though people can walk in off the street and see their new clothing conjured up from scratch, brands are also interested in using Vega to produce extended size runs beyond their usual range, he said. The micro-factory’s location in the East Bay was also a strategic choice, giving brands sourcing access to nearby raw material options such as organic cotton, Lam pointed out.
Unspun is also exploring circular applications of its Vega technology, including products and manufacturing techniques currently in development that would allow garments to be unspun back into yarns and reused in new products, it said.
