LOS ANGELES – The Textile Innovation Fund acquired a majority stake in Los Angeles based Nature Coatings Inc. The cleantech company transforms wood waste into high performing black pigments.
With the investment Nature Coatings will further improve their eco-friendly manufacturing process. A closed-loop and a circular system, with wood waste sourced from sustainable FSC certified forests. . No external energy is required to run the equipment. The process does not emit any CO2 or other greenhouse gases. Nature Coatings’ pigments are designed for industry. They are cost competitive and easy to use with existing equipment and water based formulas that do not require any upfront capital expenditure.
Nature Coatings was founded by Jane Palmer in 2017. Palmer has worked with pigments and dyes in the apparel industry for over 15 years. She opened Noon Design Studio, the first dye house in the United States to specialize in using plant-based dyes, in 2010. After recognizing the demand and interest in plant-based dyes, but also understanding their limitations such as poor colorfastness, higher cost, excessive use of water and inconsistent results, she turned her focus to developing modern and sustainable high performing bio-based pigments.
Since the company’s founding in 2017, the Nature Coatings team has successfully developed a new black pigment for mass markets. Nature Coatings has received two prestigious National Science Foundation Awards, participated in Fashion for Good’s Accelerator Program, is currently participating in Fashion for Good’s Scaling Program, and is a portfolio company at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator.
Textile Innovation Fund stands for innovation in textile business: from fibre to bits, and from strings to sensors. The fund is managed by BB Capital Investments from The Hague and provides growth capital, network and expertise for scale up companies in a various range of textile industries.