How The Mills Fabrica is leveraging tech to drive innovation in fashion

le to add value for those who are looking to tap into the potential of Asia, as well as bringing Asian companies into the global arena. “2023 is a special year, as it marks our five years of accelerating innovations, development, and adoption in the categories of techstyle (the intersection between technology and lifestyle) and agrifood tech,” Cintia Nunes, general manager at The Mills Fabrica, told Inside Retail. The story so far Nunes went on to say that in the past five years, the company has supported more than 35 innovations as part of its investment and incubation program. “We have invested up to US$3 million per startup, and in the textile and apparel, and agrifood-related funds over the past five years. Our reach is global – including the US, Europe, and Asia,” she said. She noted that over 50 per cent of the recipients received successful subsequent funding. The company is working towards accelerating innovations for sustainability, environmental and social impact. The Impact Report Another milestone for the company was its inaugural Impact Report that was launched in conjunction with its fifth anniversary. “We want to use our platform and resources to spread science-backed knowledge and messages about sustainability so more people can understand and make more informed decisions,” Nunes stated. According to her, the report is particularly important because it advocates for standards and frameworks to measure and evaluate the techstyle and agrifood industries. “Only by having those standards and frameworks in place, can we understand, and measure how investments can bring in positive environmental and social impact,” she added. Nunes went on to say that it is the company’s priority to bring these standards to the wider industry, so that more organisations can take steps to make a genuine difference for the planet.  Successful use cases One of the companies The Mills Fabrica has invested in is Circ. It pioneered a chemical recycling technology that can recycle polycotton, which is what the majority of clothes are made of, into reusable fibres.  In 2022, it recycled more than 41 tonnes of material, and saved more than 66 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Unspun, another example, switched its thread range to a circular dissolvable thread that makes the garment disassembly process more efficient. “The utilisation of technological innovations to achieve on-demand manufacturing means the entire process is zero-inventory; no finished inventory will be created, and thus there will be no unsold garments that could otherwise be turned into waste,” she stressed.  On a per-product basis, Unspun jeans produce 0.34kg less waste when compared to traditional production practices, according to the company. Overall, Unspun’s jeans emit 42 per cent less CO2 when compared to a traditional pair of jeans. Other notable mentions include Colorifix, a biotechnology company that pioneered the first biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles.  It has on average saved 79 per cent more water, reduced 65 per cent of chemical product use and 51 per cent of natural gas use. The Supplant Company is another revolutionary company that develops and scales system-wide solutions to the food industry’s most systemic problems.  It is turning side-streams like corn cobs, oat hulls and wheat straw into replacements for the world’s most pervasive ingredients. The climate emergency Scientists agree that the planet is fast approaching a climate tipping point, with the goal of staying within 1.5 degrees Celsius slipping away. For Nunes, that is why the company is staying the course. “The production of fibres, food, and other associated inputs requires natural capital, which has undoubtedly contributed to the precarious state of our social-ecological system, becoming ever more unbalanced and seemingly verging toward the tipping point,” she explained. Nunes believes that innovation in both the techstyle and agrifood will be the fundamental catalyst towards ecological and social resilience – both are significant contributors to climate change, emitting up to 44 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. “All in all, we are calling out for talented entrepreneurs with ambitions to change the world for the better to join us, as well as continue to partner with mission-aligned venture capital funds, to together work towards achieving real planet-positive changes,” she concluded.