Fashion Recycling Platform SuperCircle Raises $7 Million

Trend recycling platform SuperCircle has raised $7 million in a pre-series A financing spherical.

The reverse logistics enterprise, which has developed a digital platform to make it simpler for manufacturers like Reformation and Uniqlo to gather, kind and in the end recycle garments on the finish of their life, will use the funds to enhance logistics infrastructure, speed up model partnerships and allow strategic hires throughout the enterprise.

The corporate sits in an rising area as style companies come underneath rising strain to search out options for the rising downside of clothes waste. Within the US alone, the amount of textiles despatched to landfill elevated almost 30 p.c between 2010 and 2018 to succeed in greater than 11 million tonnes, in accordance with the nation’s Environmental Protection Agency. Policymakers in locations like California and the European Union are contemplating laws that may make manufacturers liable for accumulating and managing this waste.

SuperCircle is aiming to be a part of the connective tissue of infrastructure wanted to successfully hyperlink shoppers and types again to recyclers. The corporate’s tech and logistics platform plugs into manufacturers’ consumer-facing take-back and returns schemes to push stock that may’t be offered to recycling companions. Manufacturers get transparency over the place their previous garments find yourself, avoiding the risk of a scandal if it’s found they’ve been destroyed or dumped, in addition to new shopper contact factors and knowledge.

Although weaker-expected demand for brand new round supplies has shaken the market for style recycling know-how in latest weeks, infrastructure like SuperCircle is searching for to construct exams totally different territory.

Buyers are betting on the consumer-facing platform to drive each returns by buyer engagement and constructive environmental impression for manufacturers. It’s a “class maker,” mentioned Nisha Dua, co-founder and managing accomplice at investor BBG Ventures.

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The Hunt for an Easy Way to Recycle Old Clothes

Applied sciences that may recycle previous garments again into new ones have been touted as a holy-grail sustainability answer. As they start to scale, the business is dealing with a tough new logistics problem.