Amsterdam-based startup VNYX has raised greater than €1 million in funding to scale its robotics and AI methods designed to automate style resale and cut back textile waste.
The funding – which incorporates a mixture of strategic funding and authorities grants – marks the corporate’s transition right into a post-revenue part, with early industrial deployments already underneath approach.
VNYX is positioning itself on the intersection of robotics, AI, and round economic system logistics, focusing on one of many style trade’s most advanced operational challenges: processing returns, overstock, and secondhand clothes at scale.
Automating resale operations
On the core of the corporate’s method is a mixture of proprietary {hardware} and AI-driven software program designed to automate garment dealing with and processing.
VNYX says its system has already decreased processing instances from 19 minutes to round 3 minutes per merchandise, with a aim of reaching its “1-minute promise” – a benchmark it believes would make resale extra environment friendly and worthwhile than conventional retail disposal strategies.
The corporate’s present system, VNYX10, is deployed with companions together with BOAS and Bever, processing as much as 10,000 objects yearly and producing early income.
“Past the capital, our progress is pushed by a world-class group and advisors whose dedication to cease style waste has turned a daring imaginative and prescient into actuality in simply 12 months” says Vincent van der Holst, co-founder and CEO of VNYX.
{Hardware}-software integration and scaling problem
The corporate’s growth has been supported by a community of technical and monetary companions, reflecting the complexity of constructing built-in robotics methods for industrial use.
These embody deeptech buyers resembling Baltic Enterprise Angels and Squads Fund, in addition to engineering associate Spark Design & Innovation, which is contributing to the bodily growth of the VNYX {hardware} platform.
Further backing has come from Stichting DOEN, Earthstar, and the Netherlands Enterprise Company, which has offered non-dilutive funding to help analysis and growth.
Towards high-throughput resale robotics
Wanting forward, VNYX is making ready to scale its know-how with the rollout of higher-capacity methods.
The subsequent-generation VNYX100 system – able to processing as much as 100,000 objects per yr – is scheduled for supply to BOAS in June 2026.
Past that, the corporate is creating the VNYX1000, which it describes as a large-scale robotics and AI system designed to deal with greater than 1 million objects yearly in industrial resale environments.
“Any model who desires to go beneath one minute with us can be a part of proper now. We dump and burn one rubbish truck of textile each three seconds, so each second counts. The best time to behave is now,” says Romy Goedhart, co-founder of VNYX.
From sustainability to industrial automation
VNYX is focusing on a shift in how style firms handle unsold and returned stock, notably as regulatory strain will increase in Europe via prolonged producer duty (EPR) guidelines and bans on the destruction of unsold items.
By automating resale processes, the corporate argues that round style fashions can transfer from area of interest sustainability initiatives to scalable industrial operations.
“Now we have confirmed that style resale isn’t solely the appropriate factor to do for the planet, however it’s the appropriate factor in your pockets too,” says Guus Balkema, CFO of VNYX.
“Our focus now shifts to scaling. We’re curating a shortlist of strategic VCs and style manufacturers for the deployment of our VNYX1000 know-how to worldwide achievement facilities and international style manufacturers.”
The corporate is now looking for extra funding and partnerships because it seems to deploy its methods in bigger logistics environments and increase internationally.
