Refiberd

Refiberd is a startup that develops an AI- and imaging-based textile sorting solution combined with a chemical recycling system to create recycled threads. The company claims that its solution can reliably quantify and recycle multilayered textile waste, which has historically been the most challenging material composition to identify. It is yet to commercialize its technology as of January 2024.

Refiberd’s textile recycling system works by first carrying out a quick presort of textile waste to create categories assigned by color and estimated material percentage before it is shredded and further quantified through a hyperspectral imaging and machine-learning-based algorithm that is trained on a proprietary dataset of textile samples. This yields highly accurate textile identification, which results in quantified waste that is over 90% accurate within a 1% material range. The waste then enters Refiberd’s chemical recycling system which is able to isolate the cotton and polyester fibers to create new Refiberd thread.

Refiberd claims its solution allows millisecond detection speed per garment and meets comprehensive mechanical and chemical recycler standards for fiber and contamination identification. Additionally, it can detect traditionally problematic materials for recyclers, including trace amounts of spandex, nylon, and acrylic below 2% composition. The recycled thread is 50% cheaper than cotton thread and 75% cheaper than other recycled threads. The process also preserves dye color and is eco-friendly.

Funding and financials:

In December 2022, the company raised USD 3.2 million in a seed funding round. This was followed by a non-equity funding round for an undisclosed amount in February 2023 led by Google for Startups and a USD 200,000 grant awarded by the H&M foundation in June 2023. The company also raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round in August 2023.