H&M Foundation doubles GCA grant and winners to "speed up" textile industry transformation

The H&M Foundation, a non-profit organisation privately by the Stefan Persson family, founders and main owners of the H&M Group, has announced the ten winners of its Global Change Award 2023.

The Global Change Award provides the tools, connections, and resources necessary for early-stage innovations to move from idea to scale as quickly as possible.

Every year, H&M Foundation supports the five "most impactful innovations with the ultimate aspiration of a planet positive fashion future". The winners then receive €200,000 each and embark on a yearlong 'GCA Impact Accelerator'.

However, this year, the organisation has doubled both the grant and winners to "speed up the transformation" of the textile industry, meaning that ten winners will share a €2 million grant.

The Global Change Award 2023 winners

Material

• Algreen (UK) – Biobased foams, adhesives and coatings crafted from natural sources.
• ALT TEX (Canada) – Transforming food waste into biodegradable polyester.
• KBCols Sciences (India) – Bio-fermenting textile dyes with microorganisms.
• Nanoloom (UK) – High performance-fibre fuelled by graphene.
• PhycoLabs (Brazil) – Making seaweed fibres that spur social innovation.
• Rethread Africa (Kenya) – Regenerating agricultural waste into bio-based synthetics.

Recycling

• DyeRecycle (UK) – Extracting and transferring dyes from old to new fabrics.
• Refiberd (US) – Adding lightspeed and laser precision to textile sorting with AI and spectroscopy.
• Tereform (US) – Enabling circular solutions for hard-to-recycle waste textiles.

Design

• SXD (US) – AI-powered platform turning design concepts into zero-waste patterns.

Karl-Johan Persson, H&M Foundation Board Member, said: "We have an urgent opportunity to support innovations that could transform the entire fashion industry – that’s why we’re doubling the grant and the number of winners.

"We’re giving these innovators a total of two million euros and access to our accelerator program – but we’re also giving the industry an opportunity to connect with these brilliant innovators. I’m excited to see the impact these innovators will make on the industry."

Christiane Dolva, Strategy Lead at H&M Foundation, added: "There’s a wide range of solutions among this year’s winners. If scaled, I believe they could have a real impact on the industry – which needs a holistic transformation if we are to reach a planet positive fashion future."