The START Fashion Tech initiative was recently launched by renowned US investment firm Arieli Capital in Milan.
Event is in association with Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, Milano & Partners, Shape Next, Intel Ignite, Microsoft for start-ups, and the Ministry of Economy and Industry Foreign Trade Administration.
It is scheduled to take place in Milan, Italy from March 4–7, following Milan Fashion Week, intends to connect investors, top brands, and fashion tech start-ups.
Participating from a pool of candidates from more than 15 countries, the program has found and chosen 10 creative start-ups that together have raised over US $20 million in revenue and received US $52 million in capital. The fashion technologies that these start-ups specialize in include biomaterials, sustainability, artificial intelligence, supply chain management, authentication, blockchain, near field communication (NFC), and consumer experience.
Leading business executives and investors will be present at the program’s private finale, which will be hosted by ACIN (Accenture Customer Innovation Network Milan).
Arieli’s partner and head of innovation, Or Haviv, expressed gratitude for the company’s local presence in Milan, citing it as evidence of their five-year collaboration with the Italian IT industry. This cooperation entails investing in Italian start-ups, overseeing the official start-up accelerator for the Italian government, and assisting Italian businesses in their international development into other nations.
With a noteworthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 23%, the worldwide sustainable fashion industry, estimated to be worth US$7.8 billion in 2023, is expected to surpass US$ 33 billion by 2030. The trend toward sustainability is apparent among START FashionTech applicants, as twenty percent of the start-ups are concentrated on employing biomaterials to transform the textile sector.
Fashion technology companies are utilizing advanced technologies like blockchain, web3, and NFC (near-field communication) to securely authenticate products, turn things into networked data points, and optimize supply chain processes with big data and artificial intelligence. The fashion market is expected to reach a valuation of US $3 trillion by 2030, thanks in large part to this technological transformation.
