Syre celebrates one year!
Yes, we launched into the public domain with our new brand and impact company on this day one year ago – with a bang, sharing our vision and mission for transforming the textile industry into a circular future. Followed by announcing founding investors and our 100 MUSD Series A, and on top, the integration of Premirr technology and team in North Carolina, US. Hitting the ground running, we had then been operating in stealth mode for some time - recruiting top talent, approaching brands and supply chain partners, and finalising our own brand identity. Syre, meaning oxygen in Swedish and also representing a combo of the words ‘sy’ (to stitch) and ‘re’ (over and over again). On March 6, 2024, we finally announced Syre to the public.
Reflections after the first year since launching Syre
It’s been a dynamic year. Bold, yet humble, and with fast iterations. We have grown the team by 300%. What we consider our greatest assets right now is foremost the amazing talent we have in Syre – representing more than 10 nationalities and all angles of the industry, but sharing the same vision. We have ex leaders from Klarna, Spotify, Google, Eastman, Volvo Cars, Autoliv, Premirr, H&M, Adidas, McKinsey, Rodebjer, the Government, etc. Globally present top talent, from Vietnam and Taiwan to East and West coast in the U.S., to Sweden, and Germany. Very diverse but all with a joint passion to scale and make an impact.
We are also very proud of the largest bankable offtake agreement to date in the industry – worth 600 MUSD over 7 years with one of our founders – H&M Group! This offtake agreement we are also mirroring upstreams so to speak, with existing and coming feedstock (textile waste) providers, to enable investments across the supply chain. We have also established ourselves with two major hubs, one in North Carolina, US and one in Stockholm, Sweden. Tech and Operations being led out of US where we now in Mebane have R&D facilities, Modern Lab, our R&D Pilot Line, ramping up sample production and tests. And in Cedar Creek in proud partnership with Selenis a substantial Blueprint plant in the making. Meaning we can rapidly go from Lab, to Pilot Line to Blueprint plant. All to prepare for the first Gigascale, commercial plant at scale, where we shortlisted Vietnam as prime choice. Industrial park selection is ongoing as we speak.
Another significant milestone: following our launch together with our founders H&M Group and Vargas, we proudly announced all of our investors that are on board – TPG Rise Climate, Leitmotif, Giant VC, Volvo Cars, IMAS Foundation, and Norrsken. Strong ESG and impact orientated, and representing all three major textile verticals – home interior, automotive, and apparel. This truly is the most valuable network and support.
Ecosystem - what does it mean?
And as for commercial traction then? We are making progress every day building a platform and an ecosystem. For us, this means we do not look upon us as a unique technology company – rather, we look upon ourselves delivering solutions to brands. By building an ecosystem and partnerships with feedstock providers, gathering data analytics to ensure quality assurance of textiles with startups, and to ensure our solutions flow through the supply chain in a positive and good manner. And most importantly, the relations with the brands offering the solutions and building the future together. I.e. starting from a pull request and need, like our founder and pioneer – H&M Group. Where we negotiated and landed the to date by far biggest bankable offtake agreement making investments into hyperscaling possible. By this, we can then match the brands' customer needs offtake agreement upstream towards the collaborating supply chain all they way to the sorting and collection of feedstock. Creating a circular, traceable, solution of polyester material.
We are proud of our presence in the market that we have gained during our first year, the notion of the Great Textile Shift about to happen, and the recognition that improved circularity is the way to go for the industry. And that impact comes with scale. And scale can be achieved by teaming up across the globe – from feedstock partners to the larger textile value chain, to tech providers, and to brands and end consumers. Now is the time to act to establish global, regional, green, transparent, and truly circular polyester partners. We expect the time has come to shift from smaller capsule collections showcasing innovative new materials to instead shift focus to impact at its core – by going circular in big volumes. Future-proofing the apparel, automotive, and home interior businesses (by moving away from fast to circular).
What its like to work in a startup?
Well, never boring that’s for sure. A year ago, we were cold-calling potential feedstock suppliers hunting where the polyester of the world goes, we searched for viable R&D facilities and pilot plant locations, we shared a pitch deck with brands and supply chain partners, and we were inviting investors to join us on the journey. Along the way we also realized that we needed to have access to polymerization units for our 10k MT Blueprint plant, and to establish strong partnerships on the spinning side. A few loops later, we are happy to work with the skilled Selenis team on site in Cedar Creek, the U.S., and with the DITF TITK and RISE institutes prior having our own equipment on site. We can also share that we have strong brands engaged on the circularity journey, recognizing the scarcity and the leadership to be taken in the textile industry.
How has it been then, well, the toughest part I believe, apart from the many hours spent travelling and simply hard working, is the realization and action needed to sometimes separate from colleagues where the fit has not been suitable for the journey we were on. In a scale-up this need to happen fast, and alternative routes have not been many. As a fellow leader in Syre stated, ‘it can be disorienting but it's typical to face rapid changes in a fast growing start up with big ambitions, so there will be more ups and downs, but lots of paths to success’. There have also been many occasions where our optimistic and strong drive has needed to be altered a bit to face the harsh reality, we have grown 300% in one year in terms of employees. In that sense, it’s been truly amazing to work with our Board under the superb guidance of Susanna Campbell – such a professional (and warm) approach to all. Other challenging areas have been the relation to time plans, the balance of being optimistic aiming to achieve challenging time plans and what is yet to learn in the realization of the plans. That said, we will constantly chase the alternative faster route to execute versus what is traditionally seen as best practice. Speed and scale before all, because the planet cannot wait.
So, overall challenging, dynamic, fun and rewarding – but not easy. We do feel very optimistic about the journey ahead and I want to use this one-year-celebration as an opportunity to say thank you to everyone backing and supporting us, and to all other collaborators and leaders across the industry who jointly with us truly want to drive the Great Textile Shift.
The time is now. Let’s go!
