AI material identification scanner manufacturer Matoha, a UK-based startup that enables textile sorting, has completed the first phase of a £1.5m seed round.
Archipelago Ventures and Circular Plastics Accelerator led the seed round – the initial funding stage for a start-up – for Matoha. Other investors include Conduit Connect, British Design Fund, Fashion for Good, and angel investors.
Co-founder of Archipelago Ventures Lucy Mortimer is appearing at this year’s Festival of Circular Economy in May. Last week, it was announced that Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh is giving a keynote presentation at the Festival.
Hans Chan, Matoha’s CTO and Co-founder, said the investment will enable Matoha to take the technology to “the next level.”
“With this investment, we can have a greater impact on processing end-of-life textiles,” Chan said. “This will include improving the AI capabilities in sorting for recycling and reuse. We are also looking at automation which is essential due to the sheer volume of textiles waste.”
Matoha believes one of the key problems in the recycling of textiles is the identification and separation of their component fibres.
Each individual fibre type has a different recycling process and needs to be sent to a specific recycling plant.
Matoha says it has developed manually operated devices that scan and accurately identify the compositional makeup of textiles in under a second. The devices are designed to be intuitive and easy to use.
With this investment, we can have a greater impact on processing end-of-life textiles.
Manufactured in the UK by Matoha’s in-house team, the devices range from handheld scanners that can be used on-site or in the field, to in-built desktop scanners for industrial-scale waste sorting facilities.
Matoha says it has raised investment to develop and extend the capability of the handheld devices.
The second phase of this Seed round will aim to support the automation and scaling of Matoha’s technology via AI-driven robotic solutions.
Justin Guest, Founding Partner at Archipelago Ventures, commented: “Solutions like Matoha’s are critical to unlocking barriers and enabling a circular textiles economy.
“Identification of material types and the ability to sort textiles is key to valorisation of end-of-life textiles and fabrics.”
Reacting to the announcement, Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovations at WRAP, said: “Moving to a circular model of clothing is critical with a growing global population, and to counter overproduction.
“Key is developing an automated and transformative way of sorting clothing for both fibre2fibre recycling, reuse and other applications.
“With Matoha, we see a cost-effective solution to this issue that will help enable more textiles to be effectively sorted and saved.”
