Sewts hopes to use its latest funding to bring the production and recycling of textiles closer to consumer markets to reduce CO2 emissions, overproduction and waste.
With its fresh capital, sewts says it can speed up the global deployment of its first series-ready product Sewts.Velum which it has developed with human-like perception and grasping capabilities to make it possible to automate the handling of textiles.
Sewts.Velum automatically picks crumpled, laundered towels and feeds them into folding matches to help industrial laundries overcome what it describes as challenging labour shortages and strengthen operating efficiencies.
Michal Natora, investment director at Emerald and lead investor believes physical AI will automate hard physical tasks usually done by humans and adds: “Our investment in Sewts comes from the conviction that this company has the ingredients to become one of the leaders in physical AI. As a first step, Sewts entered the market by bringing industrial robots to commercial laundries for the first time, generating very strong market demand for its initial product Sewts.Velum.”
Sewts is also in the process of developing additional applications across the textile production lifecycle, driven by what the company sees as mounting demand for automation solutions.
Beyond resolving labour shortages, the company suggests its new technology holds the potential to significantly advance climate objectives and improve working conditions.
Sewt's ultimate goal is to automate the production of clothing, however its immediate target involves streamlining the handling of returned garments in the ecommerce domain. In partnership with the German Otto Group, Sewts has already prototyped a solution for this purpose.
Sewts CEO and co-founder Alexander Bley envisions a transformative mission to transform textile production. He states: "Our long-term vision is a ‘moonshot’ idea – to revolutionise the production of textiles. To get there, we first dedicate ourselves to the most promising niche markets and then approach the big vision step by step.
The funding featured international industrial and tech investors, including Emerald Technology Ventures, CNB Capital, EquityPitcher Ventures, and Nabtesco Technology Venture as fresh investors, alongside continued support from existing shareholders Bayern Kapital, APEX Ventures, and HTGF.
