Spinnova wins 2021 ANDAM Innovation Award

Finnish start-up Spinnova has been named the 2021 ANDAM Innovation Award winner for developing 100 percent sustainable textile fibre directly out of FSC-certified wood and waste streams without dissolving or other harmful chemical processes.

As winners, Spinnova will receive 50,000 euros and a one-year mentorship from Yann Gozlan, founder and president of Creative Valley.

The award was launched in 2017 to support and encourage technological innovations that contribute to transforming and reinventing the fashion industry. It is open to any entrepreneur or start-up, French or international, who are willing to develop their project in France.

The projects have to offer innovative and technological solutions in fashion design, production and distribution to help develop “an accountable and transparent fashion industry, considering economic, environmental and social issues”.

Spinnova impressed the judging panel for the way it is transforming how textiles are made sustainably with technology that can make cellulose-based materials that are cost-efficient and environmentally friendly.

Lotta Kopra, chief commercial officer at Spinnova, said in a statement: “Spinnova transforms the way textiles are manufactured globally. Our unique mechanical process without any harmful chemicals enables production of textiles fibres that have minimal environmental impact.

“We feel honored to receive the ANDAM Innovation award. We see this as a great opportunity to introduce our sustainable solution to the fashion industry in France and beyond.”

ANDAM Innovation Award won by Finnish start-up Spinnova

Yann Gozlan, founder and president of Creative Valley, added: “2021 has been adversely affected by the sanitary crisis and its hardness; number of players of the fashion industry were forced to stop their business others managed to reinvent and deeply rethink their business. We welcome their efforts to save employment and know-how and contribute to the international outreach of our French industry.

“The technologies we had the opportunity to discover through this edition of the ANDAM Innovation Prize are full of hope, the early signs that our industry has decided to change, to take care of our natural resources, water, carbon, energy, without ceasing to inspire us, project ourselves into a desirable future where porosity between the physical and the virtual worlds is constantly growing.”

Spinnova were up against tough competition from start-ups covering fashion labels, traceability, fashion design, retail management, circular manufacturing processes, and a unique reverse image search engine.

2021 ANDAM Innovation Award finalists

Studio Infinity x Acid Rays - creates virtual and digital identities for fashion labels using 3D modelling, AR and VR.

Trustrace - helps brands achieve full product traceability and complete supply-chain mapping.

Eva Engines - is a digital platform simplifying the fashion design process.

Booxi - is an appointment management platform designed for retailers to enable their customers to schedule experiences with their staff, via video or in person, proven to increase basket size and conversion.

Fairbrics - is developing circular manufacturing processes that use renewable resources instead of petro-sourced products.

Fairly Made - allows fashion brands to monitor the impact of clothing and accessories with 4 indicators - traceability, social, environment, and recyclability.

ModaResa - is a B2B web app that reinvents how apparel brands plan, meet and interact with their retailers during fashion weeks worldwide for physical or virtual buying appointments.

Navee - is developing a unique reverse image search engine to track frauds and counterfeits across the internet.

ZoomLook - is a luxury digital experience technology that brings a website alive in an entirely new way with immersive photo VR images.

All finalists will benefit from access to the ANDAM Expert Committee and network to help them in the development of their structure and strengthen their link with the fashion industry.