Ravel Raises $8.2M Seed to Scale Textile-to-Textile Recycling

Ravel Closes $8.2M Seed Round

Ravel, a Seattle-based textile-to-textile recycling company, has raised $8.2 million in seed funding. The round was announced on September 17, 2026, and was led by One Small Planet.

What Ravel Does

Ravel addresses a persistent challenge in textile recycling: blended fabrics. Conventional recycling infrastructure struggles to process mixed textile waste, particularly polyester blends containing elastane (spandex). These blended materials often end up in landfills or incinerators because separating the component fibers is technically difficult and economically unviable at scale.

Ravel's proprietary Purification Recycling process is designed to change that. The process accepts mixed textile waste, isolates and removes elastane from polyester blends, and purifies the recovered material into mono-material fiber. Critically, the output is designed to be drop-in ready for existing textile manufacturing, meaning it can be used in current production lines without requiring manufacturers to retool or reformulate.

The Pilot Plant

Ravel operates from a pilot plant in Seattle. This facility serves as the proving ground for its Purification Recycling process, allowing the company to validate blended waste streams at commercial scale. The company partners with apparel brands and textile makers to test and refine its approach with real-world inputs and outputs.

Price Parity Target

A key element of Ravel's strategy is achieving price parity with virgin materials. If recycled fiber can match the cost of newly produced polyester, it removes a major barrier to adoption for apparel brands and textile manufacturers. Price parity would allow sustainability goals to align with economic incentives, potentially accelerating adoption across the industry.

Investor Syndicate

The seed round was led by One Small Planet. Additional investors participating in the round include:

• At One Ventures
• Overlay Capital
• AP Ventures
• BetterWay
• Collateral Good Textile & Fashion Innovation Fund
• Lichen Ventures

The presence of multiple venture firms and a dedicated textile and fashion innovation fund suggests broad interest in the textile circularity space and confidence in Ravel's technical approach.

Why Blended Textiles Matter

The textile industry produces enormous volumes of blended fabrics because blending fibers allows manufacturers to combine desirable properties: the durability and wrinkle resistance of polyester with the stretch and comfort of elastane. However, these same blends are the hardest to recycle.

Most mechanical recycling processes cannot separate elastane from polyester. Chemical recycling approaches exist but often struggle with elastane contamination, which can degrade the quality of recovered material. Ravel's focus on elastane removal specifically targets this bottleneck.

Commercial Validation

Ravel's partnerships with apparel brands and textile makers serve as commercial validation. By working directly with brands that generate blended waste streams, the company can demonstrate that its process works with the actual materials entering the waste system, not just idealized feedstocks.

What the Funding Supports

With $8.2 million in seed capital, Ravel is positioned to expand operations at its Seattle pilot plant, continue validating its process with brand partners, and work toward price parity with virgin materials. The funding also supports the company's efforts to scale from pilot to commercial production.

Acquisition Relevance

For acquirers in textiles, apparel, chemicals, and waste management, Ravel represents a potential target with proprietary purification technology, an operating pilot facility, and established brand partnerships. The company's focus on blended textiles addresses a gap that many existing recycling operations cannot fill.

As regulatory pressure on textile waste increases and brands face growing consumer and compliance demands for circularity, companies with proven textile-to-textile recycling capabilities may become strategic acquisition targets for apparel conglomerates, chemical companies, and waste management firms seeking to build or acquire circular economy infrastructure.