The Renewal Workshop, which bills itself as the leading provider of circular solutions for apparel and textile brands, is expanding into Europe on the back of a $5.5 mn financing round. The Oregon-based company helps brands become more circular by collecting, sorting, cleaning, repairing and repackaging non-sellable merchandise and then selling it at a discount directly to consumers from its warehouse.
It has now expanded into Europe with a new base in Amsterdam thanks to a financing round led by European venture capital and impact investors Social Impact Ventures, SHIFT Invest, and Quadia, along with backing from existing US investors Closed Loop Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Portland Seed Fund, and High Meadows Investment Group.
The Amsterdam facility offers the company’s entire suite of services to European apparel brands, from circular business model strategy to garment and textile renewal services and recommerce management.
The Renewal Workshop aims to operates a zero-waste circular system that recovers the full value out of what has already been produced. Brand partners receive impact data on the amount of water, carbon, and chemicals that are saved through their partnership. To date, it claims to have diverted more than 90 metric tons of apparel from landfill.
Co-Founders Nicole Bassett and Jeff Denby, who built their first renewal facility in 2016 in the US, where clients include The North Face, Mara Hoffman, Prana and Coyuchi, said that strong demand for their service in Europe meant that it was time to expand.
“Over the past three years, The Renewal Workshop has helped some of the biggest brands in apparel launch renewed collections,” Bassett said. “We exist to serve brands as they transition to fully circular, zero-waste businesses, and our partnership with our existing and new values-aligned impact investors is perfectly timed to scale our operations for that mission.”
Denby added, “Production is already underway at our Amsterdam facility, and we are thrilled to serve a strong pipeline of European brands eager to transition to circular business models.” Eske Scavenius, Senior Investment Manager with Social Impact Ventures, said: “The Renewal Workshop has proven their circular model for renewal and recommerce can not only drive sales and customer engagement for brands but also have significant environmental impact. As investors we were drawn to this strong alignment between commerce and impact and are excited to see The Renewal Workshop scale up.”
Florentine Fockema Andreae, partner at SHIFT Invest added, “Today, over 70 per cent of all clothes produced are landfilled or incinerated after use. If we want to contribute to a more circular and regenerative textile sector, we need to not only close the loop but also extend the average number of times a garment is worn. The Renewal Workshop brings an inclusive, efficient solution to help large fashion brands achieve this goal.”
