Colorifix

We're in the BBC! 💥 "We hope to show brands and manufacturers they can do the same thing without displacing everyone: you don’t need new dye machines or quality controls. You don’t need to start from scratch. To be sustainable, it has to be socially and financially sustainable; you don’t want to take jobs away or people’s livelihoods away," Orr Yarkoni, CEO and co-founder Colorifix. Read the full article below, thanks Louise Parry for a great chat.

We're coming to New York! For this year's Climate Week, our COO Christopher Hunter will speak with Robert Carleke from IKEA at our brilliant investor and partner Regeneration.VC Annual General Meeting. The programme is a convergence of ideation, innovation and investment. This year's event will gather hundreds of financial visionaries, policy architects, storytelling gurus and conservation champions with the aim to explore how to bring technology and industry back in harmony with planetary boundaries.  Apply to attend - https://lu.ma/67q1hg77 or if you're in New York, reach out! 💙

HOW do you create this insanely vibrant colour without any toxic chemicals!? 💡 Happy you ask! Sometimes we also feel like it's too good to be true. Here's a breakdown of our process, from creating the pigment in our laboratories in Norwich to testing at our Cambridge site until it finally reaches our customer's site in Portugal where it's grown and used at a commercial scale. Thank you team, for making it look so easy that we can put it into a five-slide-post. Every colour has its journey, just as we do - on our way to making colours that are better for everyone. 💛

We have a new colour! 💫 🌼 🍋 ⭐ ☀ Our team is no stranger to hard work, but calling this a team effort would be an understatement. After years of tireless dedication, we're absolutely thrilled to finally share it with the world—and with our customers. Solar Glow is more than just a stunning colour. It's a significant milestone for us and the industry proving that vibrant and eye-catching colours can be created through biology, without relying on toxic chemicals. At a commercial scale. Stay tuned for more. 💛

For the last few years, every time a new team member joined us, they would hear "You're really joining at the most exciting time" from several colleagues. That says a lot about the dynamic environment in a fast-moving scale-up. 🤘 We're now looking for an inspiring and experienced Head of Informatics to manage our talented team of software developers, data scientists, and engineers in building creative and flexible solutions that will significantly impact our business. So if you are interested or know someone that would be a right fit, we're looking forward to hearing from you! And to be clear: this is the most exciting time to join us.

Collaboration and scaling - two words that get us very excited. That's probably why our partnership with Siderquímica is a very important one for us. This week, we celebrated a game-changing moment: the inauguration of their very first textile biotech laboratory in Brusque, Santa Catarina, marking our official entry into Brazil. 🇧🇷 This is a massive milestone, and we’re ready for all the hard work ahead as we join forces to transform the textile industry together. Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen. More to come!

We're on a podcast! 💥 And not just any podcast. Our co-founder and CSO Jim Ajioka joins the brilliant Brooke Roberts-Islam and Helene Steiner to discuss the challenges of textile innovation and struggles (!) of changing the fashion industry for the better - moderated by Mili John Tharakan. The perfect summer listen to learn more about the people and start-ups working to change one of the largest industries in the world. And get excited to join us on the journey. We need all the help we can get, to say the least. Listen where you get your podcast but here's a link to YouTube https://lnkd.in/eUjwa-Hy

Today, our co-founder and CEO Orr Yarkoni was awarded The Princess Royal Silver medal by Royal Academy of Engineering which recognises an outstanding and demonstrated personal contribution to UK engineering. Colorifix was born out of the environmental devastation witnessed on the ground of textile effluents in Bangladesh and Nepal by our founders Orr and Jim. They realised that there has to be a way to create colour and put it on fabric the same way nature does, without harming our planet and its people. It has taken them on a decade-long journey to make that idea real and working. A day to celebrate all the hard work achieved and to get excited for all the hard work still ahead! 💙

How is DNA sequencing being used to revolutionise the dyeing industry? 🔬🌈 The dyeing industry is one of the largest water consumers in the world, using over 5 trillion litres annually* and relying on petrochemical dyes and toxic chemicals, which are often dumped into rivers and lakes, causing severe pollution. To address these environmental challenges, our innovator Colorifix uses DNA sequencing of nature's own colours to create sustainable dyes, reducing the use of water and harmful chemicals! Their process begins by identifying the desired colour from nature. They then construct the DNA sequence responsible for that pigment and introduce it into a Colorifix microbe. The microbe, using the new genetic instructions, produces the pigment naturally, and is cultivated in a fermentor. This mixture is then used to dye fabrics directly, requiring fewer rinses than synthetic dyes and eliminating the need for additional specialised equipment or toxic chemicals. This innovative dyeing process, not only avoids toxic chemicals and heavy metals but does so while reducing water consumption by 77% compared to conventional dyeing for polycotton! Learn more about the innovator’s story, technology, challenges and successes and see how the innovation is driving tangible change in the industry. Read the full interview with Colorifix at https://lnkd.in/eVnExvGV #innovation #sustainability #sustainablefashion #goodfashionjourney #dyeing #sustainabledyeing Video Credit: Colorifix *CORDIS. "Project 873840 Reporting." European Commission, 2023.

At a biotech scale-up, progress is part of our day-to-day, but some days are definitely bigger than others. We are beyond proud of the massive team effort in getting this milestone in place. We are happy to announce that Colorifix is now ISO 9001 certified by BSI under certificate number FS 792665. Special shoutout to Tatiana Petrova, our quality star (literally), we know it’s not easy but you make it look very effortless. Well done team!