In english.

The textile and fashion industries have a major impact on the environment, and for a change to happen, innovation and creative thinking are needed in every part of the chain, from idea, through business development to business. Now available NEST - New Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Textile Industry- whose objective is that Sweden will be at the forefront of the restructuring of an industry that has been of great importance to Sweden and can now have it again.

NEST was created by four incubators; Borås INK, eXpression Umeå, The Sting and XPlot. It is a national initiative supported by the Swedish Innovation Authority Vinnova, the trade association ACT, University of Textiles in Borås and the business community. The aim is that by combining the incubators' specialist areas, from textile to tech, and geographical spread, from Umeå in the north to Lund in the south, we will be able to identify and develop growth companies with new solutions that can contribute to the transformation the business community needs.

- We need innovation and new companies that do things in a different way from what we have done before. It is possible to think about new business models, or to move away from the traditional treatments of the wet processes, purely technical challenges that can perhaps be solved with new production technologies, robotization and AI. But maybe also to make the customer experience in a different way. We may not own all of our products in the future without the customer feeling that they are giving up something. I think few people feel that it got worse with the streaming service versus a DVD that one owned before. It could be a solution for our industry as well,” says Cecilia Tall, Secretary General at TEKO — Sweden's Textile and Fashion Company in NEST's press release.

In NEST, the entrepreneurs who participate gain access to a cross-industry network and niche knowledge. It is a free, intensive program that hopes to give participants a catapult effect so that they can launch and commercialize their product or service more quickly and at lower risk.

The entrepreneurs admitted to NEST receive business development and participate in boot camps hosted by industry experts and researchers. The program ends with a pitch event where the winners can enter an incubation process with continued support from all incubators, the possibility of verification grants of up to SEK 300,000 and the chance to win a scholarship from TEKO.

Here's what the players behind NEST say in the press release ahead of the launch:

“The biggest challenge for innovative solutions that are being developed to transform the textile and fashion industry into a sustainable textile and fashion industry is that the company organisation requires cross-industry expertise. NEST intends to make this possible by bringing together excellence from multiple industries such as technology platforms, cultural industries, retail and energy supply. I look forward with great expectation that startups with promising business ideas together with our partners make a decisive difference for both planet and people through business development,” says Simon Hjelte, Business Developer at Borås INK.

“We are very excited about the impact of being able to offer excellence in business development from four innovation-supporting actors to help solve the sustainability challenges facing the textile & fashion industry. In this way, we can better tailor support to the needs of businesses and create more effective business support. “, Oskar Riby, business developer eXpression Umeå.

“Defying the challenges facing the industry, we at Sting see how new, innovative technology and entrepreneurs who really want to make a difference are bubbling with new, innovative technology and entrepreneurs who really want to make a difference. We have helped Swedish climate innovations reach the world for over 20 years. Now we look forward to joining forces with Borås INK, eXpression Umeå and XPlot to help entrepreneurs across the country transform their innovations into international growth companies.” Pär Hedberg, CEO at The Sting.

“It feels incredibly positive for us at XPlot to, together with the other players in NEST, offer entrepreneurs a fast track to Sweden's combined expertise and network in fashion and textiles. The fashion industry has a complex and long value chain where we need to mix traditional knowledge and new cutting-edge knowledge in areas such as materials research, industry 5.0, future trade, sustainable business models and circular material flows. We have extensive experience in acceleration and cross-innovation processes in creative industries and see NEST as a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to quickly develop their business idea regardless of where they are in the value chain,” Lars Mattiasson, CEO at XPlot.

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