Tengiva, the first digital supply chain platform for the textile industry, announced that it has raised CAD$4.95 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Fonds Ecofuel with participation from Inovia, Anges Québec, Active Impact Investments, and N49P. The funds raised include $1.7 million in commercialization funding from the Investissement Québec Innovation Program and a $100,000 grant from the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) Seed Funding program.
Textile production is a trillion dollar* industry, and still mostly managed offline without much modern digitization – until now. Tengiva (Textiles Exchange Network) was created to solve some of the biggest industry challenges, which for emerging clothing designers is the ability to source materials quickly, cost effectively, and sustainably. By modernizing the complex and outdated months-long sourcing and distribution process used in the textile industry, Tengiva is making it easier for clothing brands to seamlessly source the textiles needed directly from manufacturers in the quantities they need, while enabling sellers to build their online presence, easily showcase their materials to develop new business relationships, and reach new markets. Today, millions of dollars of inventory are available through the Tengiva platform, including more than 300 different materials that are available to brands in 30 countries worldwide.
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“The textiles industry is one of the oldest in the world, with the manufacture and trade of fabrics dating back thousands of years”
Tengiva will use the funds to commercialize its platform, build a state-of-the-art warehouse, and execute on its global expansion strategy.
“The textiles industry is one of the oldest in the world, with the manufacture and trade of fabrics dating back thousands of years,” said Annie Cyr, CEO and co-founder of Tengiva. “While consumers today can easily purchase fashion products online from any clothing brand worldwide, the supply chain that enables the flow of textiles from mill to fabric manufacturer to apparel brand has not kept pace. Our platform is changing this by modernizing the global distribution and trade of textiles, ensuring the critical steps that take place behind the scenes of every piece of clothing manufactured and sold, is as automated and streamlined as possible.”
“With 7.2 % of global climate impact caused by textile production alone, Tengiva platform is the key to better act on significant gaps in the supply chain,” said Johanne Sevigny, managing partner at Fonds Ecofuel. “Leveraging their expertise, they have created a purpose-built platform for the industry that not only solves some of the sustainability challenges faced by the sector but has also attracted early interest from the world’s most notable textile mills and apparel brands.”
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In addition to enabling unprecedented access to materials across the supply chain, Tengiva also takes a holistic approach to addressing sustainability, which is a significant issue faced by the textiles industry. By centralizing and providing structured access to data for textiles manufacturers and apparel brands, Tengiva aims to optimize resource usage, increase transparency across the entire supply chain, and promote better practices – such as CO2 emissions calculations, material combination recyclability, and recommendations around production processes that lower the environmental impact and reduce chemical usage. This approach to driving sustainability in the textiles industry led to Tengiva attracting interest from Fonds Ecofuel, a leading clean tech fund based in Montreal, and Active Impact Investments, which is Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund.
In 2021, Tengiva was among 12 companies in Canada and the U.S. to be selected for the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders. During this time, Tengiva relaunched its proprietary technology, completed beta testing of its platform, and reconfirmed its product-market-fit for both manufacturers and apparel brands. The Tengiva platform is now ready for global commercialization, which will be a primary focus for the company in 2022.
Tengiva was co-founded by Annie Cyr, CEO and Carlos Agudelo, COO and CSO. Cyr is the author of the Guide to Textile Fibers and a respected innovator with more than 15 years of experience in the textiles and apparel industry. Agudelo holds a Ph.D. in Engineering in Polymeric Fibers for Textiles and is a noteworthy leader in the textiles industry with more than 30 years of experience in textile production operations and polymer science research.