Multi-million investment for The Renewal Workshop to make fashion industry circular

The Renewal Workshop is coming to the Netherlands. With this American concept, fashion brands themselves will become the driving force in the transition to the recycling of their clothing. The company has received an investment of almost 5 million euros, money that is used, among other things, to enter the European market. The first Renewal facility in the Netherlands was recently opened in Amsterdam.

The financing round is led by the European impact venture capital funds Social Impact Ventures, SHIFT Invest and Quadia with the participation of existing US investors Closed Loop Ventures, Gratitude Railroad, Portland Seed Fund and High Meadows Investment Group.

Re-commerce breaks take-make-waste cycle with circular solution
The Renewal Workshop (TRW) is a leading re-commerce provider of circular solutions for clothing and textile brands. These brands see that their products - after they have been used by someone - are resold on third party websites. The Renewal Workshop enables the brands themselves to be a driving force in this transition to re-use. Thanks to TRW, the clothing is cleaned, checked and repaired and quality is guaranteed. The fashion brand itself determines which clothing is renewed and stays in direct contact with customers in their own, re-commerce sales channel.

All value is recovered
In case a garment is not suitable for renewal, the full value is recovered. This is possible with the zero-waste, circular system of The Renewal Workshop. Brand partners receive impact data on the amount of water, CO2 and chemicals saved. Thanks to this system, more than 90,000 kilos of clothing have already been prevented from ending up as waste.

Renewal of clothing has a significant impact on the environment
"The Renewal Workshop has proven that their clothing and textile renewal model works and that re-commerce can not only boost sales and customer engagement for brands, but can also have a significant impact on the environment. As investors, we were attracted to this strong combination of sales and impact and we are excited to see The Renewal Workshop scaling up," said Eske Scavenius, Senior Investment Manager of Social Impact Ventures.

Fashion brands make transition
Co-founders Jeff Denby & Nicole Bassett built the first Renewal facility in the United States in 2016. They also see a strong demand for their service in Europe. "The Renewal Workshop has already helped some of the largest US clothing brands such as The North Face, Mara Hoffman, Prana and Coyuchi launch renewed collections," says Bassett proudly. "We're letting fashion brands make the transition to fully circular, zero-waste businesses".

Renewal facility opened in Amsterdam
In November, The Renewal Workshop opened the first European renewal facility in Amsterdam. "Production started immediately and we are proud to serve strong European fashion brands switching to circular business models," says Denby who, together with Tamara Zwart, will lead the European operations from Amsterdam.

Investor Florentine Fockema Andreae, Partner of SHIFT Invest: "More than 70% of all clothing produced is dumped or incinerated as dirt after use. If we want to contribute to a more circular textile sector, we not only need to recycle but also increase the average number of times a garment is worn. The Renewal Workshop offers a complete, efficient solution to help major fashion brands achieve this goal".