Syntetica raises $30 million to scale nylon textile recycling
The French deeptech company will use the Series A to build a demonstration plant with Michelin and move its nylon recycling process toward industrial use.
By Ingrid Halvorsen · Venture Capital Reporter
· 3 min read
Syntetica has raised a $30 million Series A to scale a nylon recycling process aimed at post-consumer textile waste, a category where mixed materials have made recovery difficult and expensive. The company did not disclose its valuation, revenue, headcount or any commercial terms with brand partners.
The round was led by Ecotechnologies 2, a fund managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French government. SWEN Capital Partners, lululemon, MAS Holdings, existing backer EQT Ventures, and family offices linked to Peugeot, Etam and Indorama Ventures’ largest shareholder also participated. Syntetica said it also has support from public institutions including Bpifrance and the European Innovation Council.
Founded by Marco Bertone and Louis Monsigny, Syntetica is developing patented technology to recycle Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6 from mixed textile waste in one process. The company says that removes the need to sort the two nylon types before recycling, one of the technical frictions that has limited recovery from discarded garments and other post-consumer sources.
From lab process to demonstration plant
The new capital will fund Syntetica’s first commercial demonstration facility in France. The plant is being developed with Michelin’s Centre for Sustainable Materials in Clermont-Ferrand and is intended to move the technology from laboratory scale toward industrial production.
Syntetica said the facility will be able to process hundreds of tonnes of textile waste annually. That is meaningful as a proof point, but still modest relative to the volume of textile waste generated by the apparel industry. The company has not disclosed the expected cost structure of the plant, output volumes, customer offtake agreements or whether recycled material from the process can compete with virgin nylon without regulatory or brand-driven support.
CEO Marco Bertone said the financing is meant to help bring the company’s technology into commercial-scale manufacturing. He said mixed nylon waste has long been viewed by the industry as too complex and costly to recycle at scale, and claimed Syntetica has shown it can recover valuable materials from streams that have been largely discarded.
Brand demand is the early market signal
Syntetica is already working with Victoria’s Secret and Etam, according to the company, as well as other global apparel companies it did not name. The inclusion of lululemon and MAS Holdings in the financing also points to strategic interest from the apparel supply chain, where brands and manufacturers face growing pressure to secure recycled inputs and reduce dependence on virgin materials.
The company’s positioning is distinct from recycling approaches that focus on clean industrial scrap generated during manufacturing. Syntetica says its platform is designed for post-consumer textiles, which represent most textile waste and are harder to handle because they are more likely to contain blends, finishes, dyes and contaminants.
After nylon, Syntetica plans to extend its platform to other materials and applications. The company named textiles, automotive and speciality chemicals as potential markets, but did not provide a timeline, technical milestones or target materials beyond nylon.
The Series A fits a broader pattern in European climate and materials investing: public capital, strategic corporate investors and venture funds backing process-technology companies that need expensive physical infrastructure before revenue can scale. For Syntetica, the next test is whether its French demonstration plant can prove reliable throughput and economics outside the lab.
This story draws on original reporting from Tech.eu.
