As high-street brands seek to boost their use of sustainable textiles and hit ambitious climate goals, Zara parent company Inditex and H&M are investing in Boston-based climate startup Galy’s lab-grown cotton technology.
The retail behemoths joined a $33 million series B funding round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
“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.
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.”
Inditex is ramping up investments in next-gen textile companies. It joined Breakthrough Energy Ventures on a $30 million funding round for the series B funding round, raised over $30 million for poly-cotton textile waste recycler Circ in 2022, and signed a 70-million-euro purchase agreement with recycled polyester startup Ambercycle last fall.
“Galy’s lab-grown cotton is on the verge of a breakthrough and could reduce reliance on virgin cotton if successful,” said H&M Group circular innovation lab lead Martin Ekenbark, who also holds an observatory role on the company’s board.
“About 60 percent of the materials we source for our products is cotton and we have high ambitions that all our materials come from recycled or other sustainable sources by 2030, so partnering with Galy makes perfect sense,” he added.
H&M has been following the company for a while. It was awarded 300,000 euros as the lead winner of H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award in 2020.
Inside Galy’s lab.
Courtesy GALY
Galy says its lab-grown cotton uses 99 percent less water and 97 less land than traditional cotton, while emitting 77 percent less carbon dioxide. It takes about 715 gallons of water to grow enough cotton for a single T-shirt, and global cotton production uses 2.5 percent of the world’s arable land and emits an estimated 300 million tons of CO2 per year.
It’s not just cotton — the tech will have applications for other plant cell-based crops. Bueno highlighted the fragility of agriculture and global supply chains as climate impacts growing regions and shipping capabilities, citing the steep rise in cocoa as a recent example.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’ Soon, the world will face increased volatility in conventional agriculture as extreme weather conditions become more frequent. When that time comes, Galy will be ready, better equipping our economy to withstand these shocks,” said CEO Bueno.
“Over the past two years, they have proven their technology works across multiple crops. With this new capital, they will focus on scaling up and improving the quality of their products,” said Ryan Panchadsaram, John Doerr’s technical adviser at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Panchadsaram called the technology a “game changer” in the agricultural space.
Amazon and Google investor Doerr also joined the round through his family office Eighty Eight Group, alongside Material Impact, Artesian, Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Brinc and Reaction Global, among others. Sam Altman is also among the star investors, through his Hydrazine Capital venture capital firm, as well as Fashion for Good.
