Zürich, Switzerland: Clean- and industrial-tech venture capital pioneer Emerald Technology Ventures has invested into sewts, a provider of software and robotic solutions for textile handling. The €7 million funding round was joined by new investors Constantia New Business, Equity Pitcher Ventures and Nabtesco Technology Ventures, as well as further contributions from existing investors Bayern Kapital, APEX Ventures and HTGF. The round will help sewts expand production and sales to major clients in the industrial laundry and “reverse logistics” space.
Munich-based sewts has developed a software platform powered by neural networks which allows the design and operation of robotic cells for various textile handling applications. The first commercial product stemming from this platform is called VELUM. It’s a robotic unit that feeds towels and bathmats into folding machines. VELUM is capable of grabbing crumbled terry cloth and feeding it into a folding machine at human-like speed.
sewts, which was founded in 2019 and installed its first VELUM unit in 2022, is well-positioned to help industrial laundries navigate increasingly severe labor shortages. This large sector—the global industrial laundry and linen supply sector which is estimated to be worth over $100 billion and is growing annually at around 3.2%—has historically been underserved by robotics technology. This leaves a gap for an insurgent like sewts to fill.
As sewts hones its offering across VELUM and its other products, it intends to enhance their efficiency and capacity. To do this, it will enable functions like defect detection and harmonization of several VELUM units in one facility. It eventually aims to tap into broader applications across the textile industry, such as the automation of returns handling in e-commerce (so-called reverse logistics) and of fashion manufacturing.
Emerald has invested into several robotics companies, most recently TinyMobileRobots, which makes automated line marking systems for operators of construction sites, sports fields and more.