Swedish retailer H&M and Zara owner Inditex have taken part in fresh funding round for US cellular agriculture start-up Galy, which is working to develop lab-grown cotton, Eco Textile reported.
The $33 million raised from the oversubscribed series B financing round will be used to scale up Galy’s research and development on its cellular agriculture platform and its flagship ‘Galy Cotton’ brand.
“The support of Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a testament to our vision and recognizes our scientific progress to date, and the commitment of industry leaders like H&M Group and Inditex adds both capital and expertise, helping us develop our product to reach market quality and build modular-based capacity,” said Galy founder and chief executive officer Lucian Bueno.
The five-year-old start-up currently has a minimum-viable product, and the funding will go toward additional research and development to improve quality and scale up its flagship Literally Cotton product, Yahoo Finance reported.
The lab-grown cotton originates from real cotton plants and retains its structure and attributes, while the result will be of customizable quality. The company also has a roadmap to reach cost parity to real fibers.
“Taking this equity interest marks a significant step in our commitment to advancing towards an innovative and more responsible textile industry,” said Inditex chief executive officer Òscar Garcia Maceiras.
“By investing in cutting-edge technologies for producing next-generation fibers, we are not only moving towards our goal of exclusively using materials with a lower environmental impact, but also actively shaping the transformation of the industry through strategic capital investments.”