Before the big names moved in, Baltimore-based RareBreed Ventures provided seed funding to Oakland, Calif.-based unspun to develop its 3D textile-weaving technology. Three years ago, the startup hadn’t yet deployed the technology and was “just selling jeans to show these big apparel brands what the device could do,” RareBreed’s Mac Conwell told ImpactAlpha. “My immediate reaction was that every Black woman on the planet needs to hear about this, because they finally have a company that can actually make jeans that fit.” The company’s on-demand production also reduced textile waste.
This week, unspun raised $32 million in a Series B financing round, backed by Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital and DCVC. The fresh capital will help the startup expand beyond its microfactory in Oakland and enter the international market. By weaving yarn directly into fabric and skipping the cut-and-sew process, the technology enables smaller orders, reduces transport emissions and slashes production lead times to days from months.
The company has raised just over $58 million in 10 rounds from more than two dozen investors, including SOSV, Decathlon and Lowercarbon Capital. The goal: license its technology to enough clothing brands and manufacturers to reduce human-caused emissions by 1%.
Hair and beauty
Black-led RareBreed Ventures has carved out a niche at the intersection of fashion, hair, beauty and sustainability. Conwell says he was “trying to make a case how I can use my cultural competency along with my business acumen” to show why unspun’s business made fashion and environmental sense, especially to curvy Black female consumers.
The firm also is an investor in Thousand Fell, a New York-based company that makes sneakers from food waste and recycled materials. Other investees include Halo Braid, which has built an automated hair braider for Black hair; and Rebundle, a plant-based hair extension company that aims to reduce health and environmental disparities in the hair extensions industry (see, “The role of plant-based hair extensions and Black beauty brands”). Rebundle is also backed by M25, a Black-led venture firm in Chicago.
Gender lens
Venture capital firms led by Black women are also pitching in. Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures is an investor in New-based Parfait, which uses AI algorithms to customize and make wigs that complement the wearer’s head shape and skin tone; and Calico, a Toronto-based, “smart production” management company that works with fashion brands to limit costly production errors and vet sustainable factories.
Calico says it has helped Sonderhaus, an “ethical, sustainable” clothing brand, save $150,000 in inventory costs.
Kesha Cash’s Impact America and Williams were early investors in Mayvenn, an Oakland, Calif-based hair extensions and wigs marketplace, that later raised $10 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
