Centurium leads $200m round for China textile tech specialist

The round - described as the second tranche of a Series C - also featured existing investor NRL Capital. The proceeds will be used to drive business growth and expand the customer base.

NTX's key asset is a waterless dyeing and printing system that the company claims uses 90% less water than traditional processes and consumes significantly less energy. It has obtained nearly 100 patents for this technology.

Recent developments include signing up Adidas as a customer and establishing a Southeast-Asia-based ecosystem of textile processing plants. The latter was achieved through a partnership with Luen Thai Holdings, a Hong Kong-based consumer goods supply chain specialist.

The printing and dyeing phase of textile manufacturing is regarded as a supply chain bottleneck in the fashion and apparel industry. Even the slightest change in design, materials, or finishing might require an overhaul of production processes, which can lead to delays and problems with output quality and consistency.

Traditional printing and dyeing systems tend to be non-standardised and rely heavily on skilled labour, according to NTX. Significant costs and waste are generated through demand for large amounts of ready-to-use raw materials.

Founded in 2000, the company claims that its technology addresses these issues through an agile production process that can scale capacity up or down across different plants. These efficiency improvements result in the length of delivery cycles being reduced by half.

A European Parliament-led study found that the textiles industry is responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions A separate study by the International Labor Organisation concluded that up to 36% of those emissions are generated during the dyeing, printing, and finishing phase.

Regulators are already taking aim at the industry with the European Commission introducing textile waste legislation that will come into effect in 2025. Meanwhile, the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action - to which numerous global brands are signatories - was updated last year to include goals for dramatic reductions in emissions by 2030.

Within Southeast Asia, the Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (VITAS) wants to reduce energy consumption and water consumption by 15% and 20%, respectively, by 2030.

"With ESG [environment, social, and governance] an integral part of our ‘invest to transform’ investment thesis, we look forward to a long-term partnership with NTX to make positive contributions to the sustainable development of the global textile supply chain," said Gary Liu, a managing director of Centurium Capital, in a statement.

Index Capital serves as the exclusive financial advisor to NTX for the latest investment.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Southeast Asia
• Industrials
• Technology
• Southeast Asia
• Centurium Capital
• ESG
• manufacturing
• China