Everbloom, a materials science startup, has introduced an AI-driven platform named Braid.AI designed to convert keratin-rich waste materials into new textile fibers, including substitutes for cashmere. The company aims to address pressures within the textile industry's raw material supply chain by producing upcycled materials intended to be nearly indistinguishable from their virgin counterparts and biodegradable.
Sim Gulati, Everbloom's co-founder and CEO, noted that current market dynamics, particularly the availability of low-cost cashmere, have led to increased shearing frequency of goats, impacting fiber quality and contributing to unsustainable herding practices. Conventional cashmere production yields approximately four to six ounces per goat annually, creating supply challenges for a growing market.
Everbloom's process initiates by collecting waste from various points in the fiber supply chain, including cashmere and wool farms, textile mills, and down bedding suppliers. The company plans to expand its waste sources to include feathers from the poultry industry. These diverse waste streams share keratin as a core protein, which underpins Everbloom’s material transformation process.
The collected keratin waste is chopped to size and combined with proprietary compounds. This mixture is then processed through a plastic extrusion machine, which shapes the material by forcing it through a die. The resulting pellets are subsequently fed into spinning machines commonly used for polyester fiber production. Gulati stated, "That equipment is used for 80% of the textile market," emphasizing the intent for a "drop in replacement" within existing manufacturing infrastructure.
The company's Braid.AI model fine-tunes various parameters within these machines and the formulation to create fibers with different qualities, replicating materials from polyester to cashmere. Everbloom has secured over $8 million in funding from investors, including Hoxton Ventures and SOSV.
Gulati highlighted the company's objective to make its products more economically viable for brands and consumers, stating, "I don't believe in a 'sustainable premium'." The startup asserts that all fibers produced should be biodegradable, and accelerated testing is underway to validate this hypothesis. Everbloom anticipates that utilizing waste products will also significantly lower the environmental impact of textile production.
