French startup Syntetica raises funds to scale mixed nylon recycling

Syntetica has raised $30 million in a Series A led by Bpifrance’s Ecotechnologies 2 fund, with Lululemon, MAS Holdings, Swen Capital Partners, EQT Ventures and family offices linked to Peugeot, Etam and Indorama Ventures’ largest shareholder also participating. The French startup says the capital will push its nylon recycling process beyond the lab and toward commercial use, at a moment when brands are looking for cleaner supply chains without paying a material penalty.

The company’s first commercial demonstration facility will be built in France with Michelin’s Centre for Sustainable Materials in Clermont-Ferrand. Michelin said the project is designed to move a laboratory innovation into an industrial solution for nylon-rich mixed textiles, with an initial phase targeting several tonnes of waste before scaling toward industrial volumes from 2027, while also operating inside a European policy backdrop that tightens textile collection and recycled-content requirements over the next two years.

Syntetica says its process can recycle Nylon 6 and Nylon 6,6 together in a single stream, even when the fibers are mixed in post-consumer textile waste that most current systems still need to sort first. The company already works with Victoria’s Secret and Etam, and Lululemon’s participation fits a broader push on circular materials: in May 2023, Lululemon called its Samsara Eco deal its first-ever minority investment in a recycling company, and in February 2024 the two companies unveiled a Swiftly Tech long-sleeve top sample made with enzymatically recycled nylon 6,6.

The market opportunity is large enough to justify the industrial gamble. Nylon production reached around 7 million tons globally in 2024, while recycled nylon still accounts for only about 2% of the market, a gap that makes cost and throughput as important as chemistry. Marco Bertone said Syntetica was built around the idea that there is “no green premium,” underscoring the pressure on recycled synthetics to match virgin nylon on price before they can move from pilot projects into mainstream buying programs.