Lululemon backs $30M round for French nylon recycler Syntetica

Activewear brand Lululemon has joined a $30 million Series A funding round for Syntetica, a French startup that has developed a method to recycle mixed nylon waste into raw pellets. The round was led by Bpifrance’s Ecotechnologies 2 fund under the France 2030 plan, with additional backing from the European Innovation Council, EQT Ventures and SWEN Capital Partners.

Nylon is notoriously difficult to recycle because the two dominant types, Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6, cannot be easily separated in consumer textile waste. However, recent oil market turmoil has made finding an alternative to petroleum-based synthetics an economic necessity rather than just an environmental goal. “It’s been a wake-up call to many brands that have been relying on petrol-sourced nylon and petrol-sourced synthetics for pricing and convenience, and which today have seen massive shocks to their system,” said Syntetica CEO Marco Bertone.

Rather than trying to produce novel textiles, Syntetica processes waste into standard pellets that existing yarn manufacturers can use. This pragmatic approach is designed to avoid a "green premium" and integrate smoothly into the current supply chain. “We have built the company with the clarity that there’s no green premium. That if you want to scale real solutions for a sustainable world, it needs to be cost competitive, highly scalable, and you need to build partnerships from the very start,” Bertone said.

The startup has already secured buy-in from major apparel names beyond Lululemon, including Victoria’s Secret and Etam. Notably, MAS Holdings, a large apparel manufacturer, also invested, a rare move for a supply chain actor backing an unproven company. Syntetica is also partnering with Michelin to build a commercial demonstration facility in Clermont-Ferrand, with a market-ready recycling project expected early next year.

For French and European public investors, Syntetica represents a strategic effort to repatriate industrial capabilities and decouple the continent's materials sector from fossil fuels. The company emerged from the Paris-based Entrepreneur First accelerator, leveraging AgroParisTech’s laboratory facilities in Reims.

Bertone leads the business side, supported by chemistry researcher Louis Monsigny and CTO Ash Ward, a former Northvolt employee. Northvolt co-founder Peter Carlsson serves as an advisor. Syntetica intends to use the new capital to prove it can produce hundreds of tons of pellets annually before expanding globally near waste and production hubs. Even with chemical giants like BASF entering the space, Bertone argues the market is vast enough for multiple winners. “If everyone were to scale to tens of factories, we still wouldn’t solve this problem,” he said. “Everyone needs to succeed for us to succeed as a society.”