Latest news with #EuropeanInnovationCouncil
Fashion United
27-06-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
Sparxell introduces first plant-based structural colour ink for commercial use
Cambridge-based start-up Sparxell will next month begin selling what it claims is the world's first commercially available, plant-derived structural colour ink for textiles. The launch, produced in partnership with manufacturing specialist Positive Materials, offers fashion brands a dye-free alternative that promises sharp reductions in water, energy and chemical inputs. The initial release, Sparxell's signature blue, will be offered in matte and shimmer finishes and can be ordered in kilogram quantities from the end of June 2025. Printing will be handled by Positive Materials, which is preparing an all-over printed cotton jersey for European distribution in September. Additional colours are scheduled to follow later in the year. Unlike conventional pigments, Sparxell's colour is generated by engineering plant-based cellulose at the microscale, mimicking the light-scattering structures found in Morpho butterfly wings. The process eliminates synthetic dyes, mined minerals and petroleum-based plastics while meeting industry durability standards, according to the company. 'For too long, the textile industry had no choice other than to accept that vibrant colours meant environmental damage,' said Sparxell chief executive Dr Benjamin Droguet. 'Our bio-inspired technology shatters that assumption, delivering exceptional results from plant-based cellulose.' Positive Materials co-chief executive Elsa Parente added that the partnership lets designers 'order the most sustainable colourant options as easily as conventional alternatives, but with the added benefit of 100 per cent biodegradable pigments free from toxic chemicals.' Industry demand for lower-impact colouration is rising as regulators and investors focus on pollution. The sector employs more than 10,000 chemicals and releases an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of dyes each year, accounting for roughly 2 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Sparxell, which recently secured a 1.9 million euro grant from the European Innovation Council and joined LVMH's La Maison des Startups accelerator, is positioning its technology as a scalable response to those pressures.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bio-Inspired Sparxell Ready to Glitter Bomb the Market
If all that glitters cannot be gold, must it be plastic? Sparxell thinks not. Now, a grant from the European Commission will help the bio-inspired startup find out. The Cambridge spin-out secured roughly a $2.15 million grant (1.9 million euros) from the European Innovation Council (EIC) as the sustainable colorant technologist works to overcome the 'critical technical barriers' with scaling production. More from Sourcing Journal Material World: Celebrate Biological Diversity Day With Carp Couture Chemical Textile Recycler Eeden Closes $20M Funding Round Material World: Still Burning Bras? You Can Bury Balena's The funding—awarded to 'disruptive innovations addressing global challenges,' per Horizon Europe—adds to Sparxell's previous investments and will help secure the startup's foothold in the $48 billion global colorant market. According to Precedence Research, the whitespace in the market sits around a 'healthy compound annual growth rate of up to 12.22 percent. The timing's right, too, as Sparxell reported 'This European Innovation Council funding is transformative for Sparxell, allowing us to accelerate our manufacturing scale-up and overcome key technical challenges much earlier in our development pathway,' Benjamin Droguet, founder and CEO of Sparxell, said. 'With our plant-based technology, we're offering industries a fundamentally different approach to color that works with nature rather than against it while meeting the highest performance standards.' Sparxell was founded in 2022 after scientists discovered a way to replicate vibrant hues found in nature using plant-based cellulose—a renewable, biodegradable resource extracted from waste streams. Sparxell's pigments use the same material that plants and animals use, the company said, to produce its fade-resistant colorants. Thus, its products are toxin-free pigments that allegedly last longer than the incumbent options on the market. Since 'spinning out' in 2023, Sparxell said it has commercially validated 25 fully-funded pilot projects. Since joining LVMH's La Maison des Startups accelerator program last September, Sparxell said it's befriended the luxury market, connecting with a handful of the house's heritage brands, like Loewe and Givenchy. Previously, the color platform technology company was acknowledged by the Biomimicry Institute's Ray of Hope Prize back in November 2023 (with $100,000) before taking home the $250,000 Sustainable Collaborative Prize from Morgan Stanley that December. Last month, Sparxell was named 'Best Sustainability Venture' by the Falling Walls Foundation. Last week in Paris, the eco tech developer took home two more awards from the ChangeNow Summit (including the Coups de Cœur jury-decreed honor) at its annual ESG showcase. This year's summit had 15 major partners (like Kering and Moët Hennessy) and 12 ecosystem partners (like B Lab and Clean Tech Open). In addition to LVMH's La Maison des Startups, Sparxell is also part of the Respond Accelerator by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, the automotive group's independent corporate foundation that was named for the Nazi-affiliated industrialist for reportedly rescuing the car czar from bankruptcy (and/or Daimler-Benz) back in 1959. Sparxell joined the six-month program's fifth cohort, last April. In operation with the European startup hub UnternehmerTUM, the program has, since launching in 2020, supported over 50 startups solving for net-zero. Currently, Sparxell said, the team is focused on fundraising to accelerate market adoption across various industrial verticals. Sign in to access your portfolio
Cambrian News
07-05-2025
- Business
- Cambrian News
Welsh business developing potentially revolutionary way of managing diabetes
'The Horizon funding scheme has been instrumental in accelerating the development of our groundbreaking technology. We were thrilled to receive €2.4 million from the European Innovation Council, allowing us to drive our innovation toward commercialisation and, ultimately, improve the lives of those living with diabetes.'
Fashion Network
28-04-2025
- Business
- Fashion Network
Colourant specialist Sparxell gets key fashion innovation recognition
LVMH-backed eco tech developer start-up Sparxell has received two prestige international sustainability awards. The UK company has been named among the prestigious 'ChangeNow Change 100' winners for 2025, joining 'a definitive list of the top sustainability start-ups to watch this year'. And during the recent ChangeNow summit in Paris, the company was additionally awarded the jury's 'Coups de Cœur' recognition in the fashion category, highlighting its game-changing potential to transform the fashion industry'. Sparxell, a University of Cambridge spin-out and 'developer of the world's first high-performance, plant-based colourant technology', joins an elite group 'demonstrating exceptional impact potential, scalability, and business viability while creatively rethinking industry standards'. It said this latest achievement reinforces its 'growing momentum as it transforms the $48 billion global colourants market with its revolutionary 100% plant-based, high-performance biodegradable colour platform'. Dr Benjamin Droguet, founder and CEO of Sparxell said the two recognitions 'validate our mission to revolutionise how industries approach colour. 'This comes at a pivotal moment as we scale our technology to transform how the entire fashion industry approaches colour. Through this innovation, we're not just creating sustainable products - we're helping shape a world where beautiful, high-performance materials work in harmony with nature rather than against it.' This recognition comes as Sparxell recently secured a €1.9 million grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC), adding to investments from the L'Oréal-backed Circular Innovation Fund and support from Innovate UK. It has also established partnerships with luxury brands under LVMH's La Maison des Startups.
Euronews
06-03-2025
- Science
- Euronews
Gender index reveals ‘unbalanced representation' in the entire EU tech ecosystem
Women are underrepresented in the entire EU tech ecosystem from the classroom to the C-suite, a new gender and diversity index found. ADVERTISEMENT A new gender and diversity index has found 'unbalanced gender representation' across the European tech ecosystem, from talent to academia and C-suite executives. The GENDEX index, funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC), evaluates how women have been represented in schools and various levels of tech companies over the last decade. It surveyed 150 deep tech company founders across European Union member states in 2024 and followed up with 20 in-depth interviews with startups. They also compiled data from Pitchbook, Dealroom, and Eurostat to get their numbers. 'This data proves we need structural change,' Tanya Suarez, Gendex's chair, said in a press release ahead of International Women's Day. 'Not only is it needed to fairly represent women, but evidence shows a gender-balanced ecosystem delivers the best results'. Inequalities start in the classroom Throughout the EU, women represented only 42 per cent of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) graduates in 2022. There are also fewer women in STEM research and roles than men, at 44 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. Some fields have more women in them than others, like biology, where women represented 62 per cent of all graduates in 2022 compared to information and communication technology (ICT) fields, where they were only 24 per cent of graduates. Fewer women going into STEM fields means 'fewer women founders of deep tech startups,' the report found, with one in five European tech companies run by women over the last ten years. Women are also underrepresented in academia, making up only 31 per cent of researchers and scientists in deep tech. Even fewer, 24 per cent, of all patent applications are made by women. The GENDEX research shows there is a 'narrowing funnel, where women's talent is lost along the way, to the detriment of the tech industry as a whole'. Women 'consistently underrepresented' in male-dominated companies Stéphane Ouaki, head of the department for the European Innovation Council, wrote in a brochure that women occupy roughly 30 per cent of all the leadership positions in European companies. The most pronounced gender gap at the board of directors level, the report continued. This was especially true in companies founded by men, where women are 'consistently underrepresented in all categories of employees'. Of female founders, one in three say their teams are made up of equal men and women in technical positions, compared to 1 per cent of companies led by men, the report says. Ouaki wrote in the brochure that only 1 per cent of venture capital (VC) funding is awarded to 'exclusively female teams'. ADVERTISEMENT When female-led teams are successful at getting investments, it takes them six months longer on average than male-dominated teams to sign their first deal, Ouaki continued. The terms for these deals are often less favourable than male-only teams, who received 1.8 times more funding than women-led teams over the last decade, the report continued. Require gender diversity reports before funding, report says The index recommends that investors and government 'require gender diversity reporting' before deciding to fund a company and allocate their funds to more women-led teams. The index will also be used by investors to 'self-assess their own portfolios for diversity,' according to a statement. ADVERTISEMENT The index comes as large US-based tech companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google are ditching diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies at the urging of the Trump administration. Expertspreviously told Euronews Next that it's hard to know whether tech companies will keep DEI policies in place, especially since smaller countries use Big Tech's involvement as justification for startups to take them on.
