Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NEF4SCALE (NEFFA | New Fashion Factory is increasing business opportunity 4 SCALing)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-07-01 bis 2024-03-31
Fashion brands struggle to keep up with growing consumer demand for sustainability. Consumers are more critical about what they wear. They want perfect fitted clothes made from natural materials using clean transparent methods and without waste. It is a difficult task for brands that need to deal with a complex, 200-year-old supply chain.
The fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries estimated to emit 1.7 M tonnes CO2, consume 79 B m3 water, and approximately 92 M tonnes textile waste annually. The largest environmental impact stem from production of raw materials & textile processing (dyeing and treatment). The industry is also focusing on recycling and circular solutions like reducing water use, improve dying processes and developing sustainable materials. Very focused, quick fixes that only scratch the surface of the problems posed by this complex supply chain. It is not enough: a $2 Trillion industry, which is expected to grow by 60% by 2030, needs long-term solutions that tackle the problem at its roots. We need a systemic change to really transform the industry!
NEFFA is the first sustainable automated manufacturing method to create custom-fit textile products from biomaterials, starting with MYCOTEX. First, we grow mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. We use liquid fermentation and only work with food grade ingredients. Then the mycelium is filtered, mixed with ingredients and pigments and applied onto the moulds. After drying and finishing the product is ready to be worn. It is our goal to become the new standard for manufacturing, next to cutting & sewing.
Our main challenge is convincing male dominant companies. This can be on investor level, but also when setting up projects with brands or manufactures. Our company has 2 female founders. When speaking with brands, there are a lot of females, so there are no issues. However when speaking to manufacturers, the management is mainly dominated by males. We have not gotten a manufacturing brand on board because of this. What we do now to overcome these issues is to look for brands, manufacturers and investors who have females in the team. Last year we got funded by 2 investors who had females in the team and also we have a lot of interest from companies with females on the team, both confirming this assumption.
Next year we want to launch the first luxury bags. Through economies of scale, raising yield per litre and having multiple robot set-ups, our goal is to go from luxury to fast fashion within 6 years. Therefore we need to have a competitive material price. The kilo price of MYCOTEX slurry (needed to make 1 m2 of MYCOTEX) right now is very high. Through economies of scale and raising yield per batch, we expect to drop in prices in the coming years when going to 15 and 150 m3, producing multiple batches per year. In order to achieve competitive prices we need to drop the material price also after the economies of scale. That is why we need to focus on sequential batch testing.
We successfully work with small 3D printed moulds. We can print them almost without visible printing lines but this is taking quite a long time. To create larger moulds that do not contain visible seams or the printing lines is more complicated. In order to make them affordable, we need to print with larger nozzles, giving thicker lines in the object that our clients do not want. We need to test different options to find the best suitable and affordable option for industrial production.
To bring a new and shorter supply chain to the market is the focus of NEFFA. This proposal is focussed on increasing our business opportunity from a business and technological point of view.
The fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries estimated to emit 1.7 M tonnes CO2, consume 79 B m3 water, and approximately 92 M tonnes textile waste annually. The largest environmental impact stem from production of raw materials & textile processing (dyeing and treatment). The industry is also focusing on recycling and circular solutions like reducing water use, improve dying processes and developing sustainable materials. Very focused, quick fixes that only scratch the surface of the problems posed by this complex supply chain. It is not enough: a $2 Trillion industry, which is expected to grow by 60% by 2030, needs long-term solutions that tackle the problem at its roots. We need a systemic change to really transform the industry!
NEFFA is the first sustainable automated manufacturing method to create custom-fit textile products from biomaterials, starting with MYCOTEX. First, we grow mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms. We use liquid fermentation and only work with food grade ingredients. Then the mycelium is filtered, mixed with ingredients and pigments and applied onto the moulds. After drying and finishing the product is ready to be worn. It is our goal to become the new standard for manufacturing, next to cutting & sewing.
Our main challenge is convincing male dominant companies. This can be on investor level, but also when setting up projects with brands or manufactures. Our company has 2 female founders. When speaking with brands, there are a lot of females, so there are no issues. However when speaking to manufacturers, the management is mainly dominated by males. We have not gotten a manufacturing brand on board because of this. What we do now to overcome these issues is to look for brands, manufacturers and investors who have females in the team. Last year we got funded by 2 investors who had females in the team and also we have a lot of interest from companies with females on the team, both confirming this assumption.
Next year we want to launch the first luxury bags. Through economies of scale, raising yield per litre and having multiple robot set-ups, our goal is to go from luxury to fast fashion within 6 years. Therefore we need to have a competitive material price. The kilo price of MYCOTEX slurry (needed to make 1 m2 of MYCOTEX) right now is very high. Through economies of scale and raising yield per batch, we expect to drop in prices in the coming years when going to 15 and 150 m3, producing multiple batches per year. In order to achieve competitive prices we need to drop the material price also after the economies of scale. That is why we need to focus on sequential batch testing.
We successfully work with small 3D printed moulds. We can print them almost without visible printing lines but this is taking quite a long time. To create larger moulds that do not contain visible seams or the printing lines is more complicated. In order to make them affordable, we need to print with larger nozzles, giving thicker lines in the object that our clients do not want. We need to test different options to find the best suitable and affordable option for industrial production.
To bring a new and shorter supply chain to the market is the focus of NEFFA. This proposal is focussed on increasing our business opportunity from a business and technological point of view.
We have been able to scale our biomass from lab to a bioreactor of 10, 150 and 1500L. In order to lower the raw material kg price of this mycelium biomass - and overcome the gap between luxury and fast fashion pricing in the future - we have performed a first sequential batch growth. This is a continuous growth of the mycelium with a harvest of 50-90 % of the biomass every 3-4 days. Even though we faced some issues, we feel this is a suitable process for scaling. The yield was high enough and post-processing showed we could create the same quality of material as from the 1500L bioreactor.
A second part was to develop a moulding system with smooth large moulds that do not contain seams, as this is vital to our seamless manufacturing method. For this we tested 2 strategies: vacuum forming and 3D printing. Both options are feasible and have their own specific use case. Both however start with a low-resolution cheap 3D printed mould to test the design first, before creating the final industrial usable mould in larger quantities. Regarding vacuum forming we have to be very specific with the design, in order to not get the seams, and still be able to de-mould it. Regarding 3D printing we have found alternatives that could create the large mould without seams. And also found a way to “mask” the 3D printing lines.
The goal of coaching was to focus on business development in general, and more particular in a male dominated world. I learned about the different communication styles, how to find out which someone prefers, and how to adapt this to this particular person in a conversation, as well as when pitching our company. We also talked about situational leadership, what kind of leader I am and how to define our team and improve communication, as well as how to give feedback in a positive way.
A second part was to develop a moulding system with smooth large moulds that do not contain seams, as this is vital to our seamless manufacturing method. For this we tested 2 strategies: vacuum forming and 3D printing. Both options are feasible and have their own specific use case. Both however start with a low-resolution cheap 3D printed mould to test the design first, before creating the final industrial usable mould in larger quantities. Regarding vacuum forming we have to be very specific with the design, in order to not get the seams, and still be able to de-mould it. Regarding 3D printing we have found alternatives that could create the large mould without seams. And also found a way to “mask” the 3D printing lines.
The goal of coaching was to focus on business development in general, and more particular in a male dominated world. I learned about the different communication styles, how to find out which someone prefers, and how to adapt this to this particular person in a conversation, as well as when pitching our company. We also talked about situational leadership, what kind of leader I am and how to define our team and improve communication, as well as how to give feedback in a positive way.
For improving the price even further, the next test would be to repeat sequential batch growth on a 1500L bioreactor. Our goal is to ultimately reach the size of 15.000 and more to be able to meet the requested pricing of the industry. For this it is vital to have the first customers, as the costs are too high to just perform a test run. You would like to be able to directly use this testing biomass for production ideally.
We have made great first steps in the mould development. To improve even further, we need to work more with actual clients. We want to learn about their wishes and demands for creating a prototype with our method. The final mould will depend heavily on the type of customer, and the final product they are interested in.
To improve communication and business development my coach has given me a lot of tools. I had time to practiced and got feedback of my findings. Now, it is simply a matter of practice, practice practice what we have learned.
We have made great first steps in the mould development. To improve even further, we need to work more with actual clients. We want to learn about their wishes and demands for creating a prototype with our method. The final mould will depend heavily on the type of customer, and the final product they are interested in.
To improve communication and business development my coach has given me a lot of tools. I had time to practiced and got feedback of my findings. Now, it is simply a matter of practice, practice practice what we have learned.