Arieli Capital unveils START FashionTech in Milan to connect fashion tech startups with brands and investors
Arieli Capital (Arieli), a US investment firm announced the launch of its START Fashion Tech program supported by Milano & Partners, Shape Next, Intel Ignite, Microsoft for Startups, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini, and the Ministry of Economy and Industry Foreign Trade Administration. Schedule. The program will connect FashionTech startups with prominent brands and investors, offering unique growth prospects in the fashion, retail and design industries.
The program has attracted applications from over 15 nations and the 10 selected startups have jointly raised $52 million and generated over $20 million in revenue for fashion technologies including Biomaterials, Sustainability, AI, Supply Chain Management, Authentication, Blockchain, NFC, and customer experience. The program will conclude with an exclusive, invitation-only final event, hosted by ACIN (Accenture Customer Innovation Network Milan), attended by top industry executives and investors.
Or Haviv, Partner and Head of Innovation, Arieli: "We're proud to open Arieli's local activity in Milan representing our successful collaboration with the Italian tech ecosystem over the past 5 years including operating the official startup accelerator for the Italian government, investing in Italian startups, and supporting the international scale-up process for Italian ventures in different countries. We're highly impressed by the advanced and creative ventures in the Fashion space."
Arieli's global programs have previously aided various Italian startups across industries such as agriculture, medicine, and climate establish strong business foundations, raise capital and enter new markets.
The global sustainable fashion market, valued at $7.8 billion in 2023, is expected to surpass $33 billion by 2030 with a remarkable CAGR of nearly 23%. This momentum towards sustainability is evident among applicants to START FashionTech: 20% of the startups that applied are transforming the textile landscape with biomaterials, and converting food waste and agricultural byproducts, such as carobs and mushrooms, into eco-conscious fabric and leather alternatives.
FashionTech ventures are harnessing the latest technologies including blockchain, web3, NFC (near-field communication) for secure, fast authentication, converting products into smart, connected data points, and leveraging big data and AI to revolutionize supply chain processes, propelling the fashion market which is speculated to reach $3T by 2030.
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