This article examines 10 new functional fabric companies advancing the textile industry with latest technologies and diverse applications. These firms deploy modular designs, create garments offering enhanced protection, and develop high-performance textiles. Others focus on sustainability with innovations like petrochemical-free materials.
Additional highlights include performance-based clothing, antimicrobial properties in fabrics, and the use of carbon fiber to strengthen textile products. Each company contributes unique advancements to sectors such as fashion, healthcare, and industrial use. These advancements illustrate the broad impact and potential of new functional fabric companies in modern material science.
Continue reading to gain up-to-date and data-driven insights on:
- Profiles of 10 Emerging Functional Fabric Companies
- How to Scout New Functional Fabric Companies Easily
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Key Takeaways
Drawing insights from the Big Data & AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform that provides data on over 4.7+ million emerging companies globally, we explore the evolving landscape of the functional fabric industry. This sector is marked by key trends and a substantial workforce, shaping its future. Our latest update of this report was 5 days ago. If you found a mistake or missing information, tell us! Here are some key insights at a glance:
- Current Functional Fabric Trends: Some of the major trends impacting the functional fabric industry are sustainable and eco-friendly materials, technologically advanced performance fabrics, lightweight textiles, sustainable dyeing & textile recycling, and pollution management.
- Functional Fabric Industry Statistics: The sector comprises 2.8K+ organizations worldwide. Out of these, 200+ new functional fabric companies were founded in the last five years, witnessing 2020 as the average founding year. On an average, each of these organizations employs about 12 people. Moreover, the average funding received by these 200+ new companies per round in the same span is USD 7.8 million.
- List of Functional Fabric Companies (Top 10):
- Radical Armour – Stab Resistant Clothing
- WearTechClub – Sensor-based Functional Activewear
- Funktion* – Modular Functional Textiles
- AccYouRate – Health Monitoring Polymer
- Winnsign Intech – Zinc Inherent Antimicrobial Fabrics
- Evolution Tech Lab – Functional Carbon Fiber Fabrics
- Nextiles – 3D Motion Capture Fabric
- Transforming Textiles – Health Enhancing Properties Integration
- Human Material Loop – Circular High Performance Textiles
- FreyZein – Cellulose-based Hydrophobic Fabrics
Meet 10 out of 200+ Emerging Functional Fabric Companies
In this section, we highlight 10 new functional fabric solutions specializing in embedded functionalities, modular designs, protective garments, and high-performance textiles. These organizations utilize advanced materials, innovative textile engineering, and integration of smart sensors. They improve wearability, functionality, and safety. Read on to discover the specific advancements these companies bring to the functional fabric industry.
Note on Signal Strength
One of the unique metrics we feature for each company is Signal Strength, a proprietary data point generated by our Discovery Platform. It gauges the extent to which a company’s influence has permeated the global ecosystem of startups, scaleups, and emerging companies. This proprietary metric serves as a valuable guidepost for understanding a company’s standing in the broader market landscape.
1. Radical Armour
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Spain
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Radical Armour develops stab-resistant clothing offering better protection. It uses the latest technology to create garments that provide protection while maintaining flexibility, breathability, and lightweight characteristics. It offers various levels of protection customizable to different risk scenarios, from moderate to medium/high risks. Radical Armour benefits individuals requiring reliable and durable protective clothing in potentially hazardous environments. It benefits professionals in law enforcement, security services, and those in other high-risk occupations where encounters with sharply pointed objects are a common threat.
2. WearTechClub
- Founding Year: 2023
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: Turkey
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: WearTechClub provides smart activewear that integrates sensor technology into conductive fabrics to monitor health data, muscle, and nerve movements. This activewear connects with a mobile application and provides real-time health and performance analytics directly from the body’s critical points. It alerts users to necessary adjustments for optimizing performance. WearTechClub enhances athletic performance through accurate data tracking and analysis, designed for athletes and fitness enthusiasts who seek to improve their physical metrics.
3. Funktion*
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Germany
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: Funktion* integrates smart functions into clothing and advances the fashion industry’s approach to digital and connected garments. It develops modular smart textiles that enable fashion brands to customize and improve clothing items with ease. Funktion* offers the Kontakt Grid* and various interchangeable modules that integrate into textiles using existing production methods. These modules cover functions from power and sensing to heat and light, all controlled through an app that simplifies setup and customization for users. Fashion brands benefit by incorporating advanced technology into their products without the need for extensive development, reducing costs, and increasing adaptability. Technology companies also benefit from this technology by extending their reach into the textile market.
4. AccYouRate
- Founding Year: 2019
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: Italy
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: AccYouRate develops wearable technologies integrated into functional fabrics for continuous bio-vital monitoring. This technology enables real-time health monitoring and early detection of physical stressors and improves intervention outcomes. AccYouRate’s wearable t-shirts provide constant health status updates and promote a proactive approach to managing health and well-being. The technology suits various sectors, benefiting healthcare providers by facilitating home care, military trainers by optimizing training regimens through stress and fatigue assessment, and sports professionals by improving athlete management with real-time data.
5. Winnsign Intech
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: India
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: Winnsign Intech develops WINNSAFE, a zinc-inherent antimicrobial fabric that combats infections and viruses effectively. This technology uses zinc, known for its safety and environmental friendliness, to create a fabric that eliminates bacteria and prevents their growth. This fabric offers a sustainable and human-friendly solution in the textile industry, particularly beneficial to healthcare settings, where minimizing the spread of infections is crucial. Winnsign Intech’s product range is useful for medical wear, home textiles, and public-use items like face masks and gloves.
6. Evolution Tech Lab
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Italy
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: Evolution Tech Lab develops ABCARBON FABRICS, a range of high-performance carbon fiber textiles. These fabrics possess capabilities like fire resistance, antibacterial properties, electromagnetic shielding, and thermoregulation. These characteristics ensure that the fabrics offer protection from environmental elements and enhance user comfort by maintaining optimal body temperature and reducing moisture build-up. It is useful for consumers looking for advanced material solutions in apparel, sports equipment, automotive design, and aerospace. It also has a lower environmental impact due to recyclable processes that significantly reduce emissions compared to conventional materials.
7. Nextiles
- Founding Year: 2019
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Nextiles develops materials that merge flexible electronics with soft goods to create a data analytics platform measuring human performance. Its Nextiles Arm Sleeve provides real-time arm health metrics to enhance athlete monitoring outside traditional sports labs. The Nextiles Fabric Force Plate allows athlete readiness assessments by measuring various metrics, including jump, height, and symmetry. It offers software for coaches to monitor and improve athlete health remotely by integrating advanced fabric sensors. The conductive threads in the fabric enable detailed 3D motion capture. The platform’s technology benefits professional athletes, teams, and military applications with real-time, lab-grade motion capture data.
8. Transforming Textiles
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: Sweden
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: Transforming Textiles develops Sense-Tex, a yarn-thread technology that integrates health-enhancing properties directly into its fibers. It enables fabrics to support hygiene, increase durability, and decrease washing frequency. It manufactures chemical-free products and extends the life of textiles with better durability than traditional materials. Sense-Tex incorporates sensors that provide real-time health metrics similar to a smartwatch, making it beneficial for the healthcare and space industries. This technology facilitates sustainable practices by allowing for mechanical recycling and circular use of the materials in production.
9. Human Material Loop
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Netherlands
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: Human Material Loop converts human hair into natural, durable, and traceable textile fibers. It offers hypoallergenic and antibacterial materials and provides a high-performance alternative to synthetic or animal-derived fibers. These products feature thermal protection and moisture regulation which increase comfort and functionality. It promotes zero-waste using green chemistry techniques. Human Material Loop develops a fully traceable supply chain by establishing a material passport that ensures ethical production practices. This approach benefits both the textile and beauty industries by repurposing hair waste from salons into high-quality textiles, contributing to circular economy efforts. It integrates with existing production facilities, supporting local sourcing and minimizing shipping emissions.
10. FreyZein
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Austria
- Signal Strength: Medium Strong
- What they do: FreyZein develops advanced cellulose-based fabrics that bring sustainability to the textile industry. This development allows the conversion of various plant-based materials, including agricultural waste and used cotton, into waterproof, breathable, and durable fabrics without relying on plastics or toxic coatings. FreyZein’s final product remains organic and biodegradable and matches the performance of traditional petrochemical materials in durability and hydrophobicity. The company’s methods weld cellulose materials together without adhesives, which eliminates the need for harmful chemicals. This process supports clothing brands to produce outdoor and performance wear sustainably.
Quick Tip to Find New Functional Fabric Companies
Utilizing a SaaS platform like the Discovery Platform for identifying new functional fabric companies provides significant benefits compared to traditional scouting methods:
- Streamlined Efficiency: The Discovery Platform offers advanced tools that streamline the scouting process. It replaces your hours of conventional desk research, saving time and resources in identifying functional fabric innovations.
- Access to Real-time Insights: Gain a competitive edge with up-to-date information on the latest trends in the functional fabric industry. The platform keeps you informed with near real-time updates on emerging functional fabric companies and news, enabling you to make swift and informed decisions.
- Tailored Exploration: Customize your search to focus on specific niches within the functional fabric sector, such as high-performance textiles, sustainable vegan leather, or performance-based functional clothes. The platform’s diverse filtering options allow you to target your scouting efforts precisely, ensuring that you find the most relevant and groundbreaking companies in the field.
Explore All New Functional Fabric Companies!
We’ve explored the dynamic landscape of the functional fabric industry, examining the latest trends and spotlighting exceptional companies driving innovation. To dive deeper, download our free Textile Report or schedule a demo of the Discovery Platform for a customized exploration of these groundbreaking developments. We seek partnerships with industry experts to deliver actionable insights into startups and tech. Interested? Let us know!
