Second investment fund has an upper fundraising target of £10 million.
21st October 2026
Innovation in Textiles
| London
Sustainable, Clothing/Footwear
Ten companies developing new textile fibres, recycling technologies, bio-based materials and automated garment resale systems have been shortlisted for investment through the 2026 Blue Earth competition.
The companies make up the Fashion & Materials category of the BE100 programme, which has selected 100 businesses across ten industries from 1,414 applicants worldwide.
The finalists were invited to pitch at the Blue Earth Summit, held at Woolwich Works in London from October 14-16, with at least one company from each category set to receive a minimum investment of £100,000, subject to due diligence.
The Fashion & Materials shortlist brings together companies addressing different stages of the textile and apparel value chain, from raw material production and processing to recycling and the recovery of used garments.
Among them is Finland’s Spinnova, which has developed a mechanical process for converting wood pulp and waste materials into textile fibres without dissolving the raw material, while 29acacia is developing fibres and yarns from agricultural banana waste.
Colorifix is applying biotechnology to textile coloration, using engineered microorganisms to produce pigments and apply colour to fabrics. Industrial Microbes is also working with engineered microorganisms, developing processes for producing chemicals and materials from renewable feedstocks.
In textile recycling, Re&Up is developing processes to recover fibres from cotton, polyester and blended textile waste for use in new textiles, while OceanSafe is developing alternative polymers designed to combine textile performance with recyclability and biodegradability.
Other finalists include Next-Gen Leather, which is growing leather-like biomaterials through biotechnology for fashion and interior applications, and Neptune Nanotechnologies, which extracts chitin nanocrystals from discarded crustacean shells to produce additives intended to improve material performance.
Extending the focus beyond materials production, VNYX is applying robotics and artificial intelligence to the sorting, grading, cleaning and preparation of used and returned garments for resale.
Completing the shortlist is Swiss watchmaker ID Genève, which is developing products using circular materials while supporting repair, upgrades and resale.
Together, the ten companies reflect the diversity of approaches being pursued to reduce the fashion and materials industries’ dependence on virgin resources, develop alternative production processes and extend product lifetimes.
The BE100 finalists were selected by 40 judges drawn from venture capital and industry, with commercial viability, innovation, environmental impact and competitive advantage among the assessment criteria.
The programme’s second investment fund, managed in partnership with Haatch, has an upper fundraising target of £10 million. Blue Earth says it intends to invest in at least ten businesses this year, compared with three in 2025.