Dutch start-up The Movement completes €1 million pre-seed round

Sustainability for textile brands and retailers is no longer a 'nice-to-have'. The textile industry is overwhelmed by the increasing public and regulatory pressure. However, implementing sustainability in textile supply chains is extremely challenging for brands & retailers. Global production networks are geographically long and complex, increasing the risk of greenwashing, the company said in a press release.

"We are a purpose-driven company, aiming to help textile brands and retailers to execute on their sustainability goals,” said founder and managing director of The Movement, Feico van der Veen. "With our solutions, we offer full transparency and traceability, proofing real impact. This funding from a strategic partner allows us to expand our engineering, business development and teams. We are looking to hire the best talent wanting to join our mission to lower the impact of textiles.”

An important part of the investment will be used for the further development of the Aware blockchain platform. "With our technology, based on patented physical tracers and public blockchain, we will prove soon that 3^rd party certifications are no longer needed. Also, we will be able to provide NFTs for physical real sustainable textile products. Only backed with disruptive technology and true clean data, consumers can trust sustainability claims made on final products by brands,” said Koen Warmerdam, brand manager of Aware.

The innovative Polylana fibre has been developed as a lower-impact alternative for acrylic fibre. As acrylic fibre is made from acrylonitrile (ACN), it produces large quantities of hydrogen cyanide and has a large environmental footprint. "With Polylana fibre we offer a better alternative but with the same characteristics as wool. With the investment, we can intensify our presence and offering, but also start R&D with bio-based chemicals,” said Tatiana Ponce Carmona, brand manager of Polylana fibre.

The Movement was founded in The Netherlands in January 2020, with a vision to make sustainable alternatives available for the textile industry, combined with a seamless supply chain integration. At the start, The Movement was backed by angel investors and now with a pre-seed investment from a strategic partner. Polylana and Aware already have the support of large influential brands and partners worldwide. The Movement is a member of the Textile Exchange and the traceability partner for the Denim Deal, launched by the Dutch Government. The Movement has offices in Amsterdam and Shanghai.