Paris-based Ever Dye raises €3.4M to develop sustainable dyes for the textile industry

Paris-based Ever Dye, a deep-tech startup, announced on Wednesday, February 1, that it has raised €3.4M in a Seed round of funding. The startup creates a chemical method for textile dyeing factories to colour fibres quickly, efficiently, and without the use of petrochemicals.

The round was led by Maki.vc, an investment fund specialising in deeptech startups, and Asterion Ventures, a French VC that backs climate tech and impact startups at a pre-Seed and Seed stage.

Besides, the round also saw participation from Entrepreneur First, a company that brings together ‘exceptional’ people to meet their co-founders and build global startups. This is where Ever Dye’s founders met.

The Seed round also includes a portion of non-equity funding from a French investment bank.

Making sustainable fashion accessible to everyone

According to a statement from Ever Dye, the textile industry’s cleanup has grown to be a substantial environmental problem. Dyeing is responsible for 52 per cent of the textile industry’s GHG emissions (Fashion For Good and Apparel Impact Institute, 2021).

Currently, the energy that dyeing mills use to manufacture is mostly derived from coal or natural gas, which results in significant CO2 emissions. Additionally, 20 per cent of the world’s water contamination is also caused directly by the dyeing industry (The World Bank, 2019). 

In order to address this issue, Ilan Palacci, an industrial engineer, and Amira Erokh, a chemist who created anti-virus textiles for NATO, founded Ever Dye in 2021.

The company claims to have created a new bio-sourced pigment that can be applied in 30 minutes at room temperature and comprises minerals and vegetal waste. Traditional dyeing methods are energy-intensive because fabrics are usually immersed in dyestuffs for hours at a time in autoclaves that may reach 130°C.

“With Ever Dye’s new, novel method, fabrics can be dyed five times faster with fifteen times less energy consumed and without any petrochemicals involved. Our unique green solutions fully fit in existing industrial infrastructures and will reduce the GHG emissions of the textile industry, in addition to conserving water,” says Ilan Palacci.

The French clothing firm Petit Bateau has also been testing Ever Dye’s solution for the last 12 months in its plant in Troyes, France.

Funds to roll out the solution on a mass scale

Ever Dye says it will use the funds to scale and further commercialise its next-generation, sustainable dyeing process and help the textile industry to lower emissions.

The French company says it will shift its production and its dyeing process to an industrial scale. It aims to complete the world’s first textile dyeing process at room temperature in 2023.

Ever Dye will also use the capital to triple its workforce in the next two years.

Ilan Palacci says, “We are now focused on boosting our solutions technical development and building partnerships with major players in the industry to supply them with the natural ingredients they need to meet consumers’ sustainability expectations.”