What is your role at Xefco and what does it involve?

Xefco was born to transform the textile industry by tackling problems of functional performance and sustainability in fashion. Traditional wet dyeing and finishing is a huge part of the textile supply chain with the process making up about 36% of the industry’s carbon footprint and about 3% of all global carbon emissions.

What’s more, it’s an extremely water and chemical-intensive process leading to about 20% of all industrial wastewater. With Xefco’s innovative technologies, Ausora and XReflex, we are creating advanced materials for a sustainable future. In my role as CEO and co-founder, I drive the business forward through innovation and as we commercialise our solutions.

This means working with investors, building and leading a motivated team and ensuring we’re working efficiently with innovation at the forefront of everything we do. I’m currently focused on using our latest capital to grow the team and commercialising Ausora, which is a novel way of dyeing and finishing textiles without water.

How is Ausora is benefitting the environment?

Ausora is a waterless dyeing and finishing solution using a unique shower plasma process to produce the same look, feel and performance properties without the environmental footprint. Ausora’s solution not only eliminates the use of water but cuts energy, chemical consumption and cost compared to conventional wet dyeing and finishing. In removing the need for water, Ausora is also removing polluted water from being discharged back into waterways. The shower plasma process also consumes 97% less chemistry and uses 90% less energy compared to conventional wet dyeing and finishing processes. As such, Ausora has the potential to stop millions of tonnes of waste entering our waterways and CO2 from entering our planet.

Reducing cost production of textiles. How does this work?

Within textile production, the wet dyeing and finishing process can be costly for manufacturers. The biggest factors driving these costs are the chemical use, energy use and the water and its treatment.

Ausora significantly reduces or eliminates each of these cost factors through its waterless dyeing process which is inherently more affordable for manufacturers. Of course, implementing a new technology comes at a cost for manufacturers so, to overcome this potential barrier to adoption we have designed the Ausora system to be plug-and-play.

Not only is the system easily integrated into existing infrastructures, but we’re working to offer a sales model that takes volume commitments with a fee per use rather than selling the systems directly. The fee ultimately works out to be more cost-effective than conventional methods. In addition to this, manufacturers also benefit from reduced overheads thanks to Ausora’s compact size requiring less factory footprint while also needing less staff to keep it running.

Where are you currently finding markets for Ausora?

As Ausora is a plug-and-play system it can be implemented in any existing manufacturing facility, regardless of location. Any textile production hub, both local and international, is a viable market for Ausora. We already have several pilots underway with some of the largest sportswear, outdoor and fashion brands using our Ausora system to colour and finish apparel.

The capital injection: What exactly does this mean for Xefco?

Xefco’s $10.5M funding validates our position as a leading innovator that’s reducing textile industry emissions. The capital will be used to scale Ausora specifically, driving its integration into existing supply chains to help brands and manufacturers transition to a cleaner and more efficient dyeing and finishing process.

Meaning being able to expand further worldwide?

Xefco is well positioned to expand globally to address what is a global industry issue. The Ausora system has been designed for easy adoption regardless of geographical location, meaning we can connect with manufacturers around the world to drive impact.

Water is a problem anyway. This must have appeal across ASEAN nations?

Conventional water-dyeing processes not only require, and waste, huge amounts of water but are also energy-intensive. Ausora holds the appeal of removing the need for water and associated energy costs, making it an appealing alternative to all manufacturers and industry leaders in all geographies.