#Raw Materials

2024-10-24

AMSilk announces successful partnership negotiation with Ajinomoto for industrial fermentation

AMSilk GmbH (“AMSilk/the Company”), a frontrunner in advanced biomaterials made from spider silk-based proteins, today announces that the Company and Ajinomoto Foods Europe (AFE), a company with over 50 years of experience in industrial fermentation, and the affiliate of the globally established Ajinomoto group, have expressed mutual interest to step into a long-term partnership to biomanufacture silk proteins at Ajinomoto Foods Europe’s manufacturing facility in Nesle, France.

AMSilk is forming a strategic collaboration with Ajinomoto, leveraging Ajinomoto’s extensive industrial expertise in precision fermentation and its strategically located site in France. The facility, in the vicinity of AMSilk’s key customers in the premium textile and consumer goods industries, is backwardly integrated with local raw materials and renewable energy, aligning perfectly with AMSilk’s commitment to sustainable business practices.

This partnership marks a significant step for AMSilk as it rapidly progresses towards becoming a commercial supplier of spider silk-based proteins. By harnessing Ajinomotos’s global fabrication capabilities and state-of-the-art facilities, AMSilk is well-positioned to achieve its commercial milestones and further its mission of delivering high-performance biotech materials on a large scale.

Hiroshi Kaneko, President Ajinomoto Foods Europe: “We are thrilled to partner with AMSilk and are committed to accelerating the market development of their innovative products by supporting their large-scale biomanufacturing efforts. Together, we aspire to create a substantial economic and social impact while driving global innovation forward.”

Ulrich Scherbel, Chief Executive Officer at AMSilk comments: “As a global player with longstanding expertise, Ajinomoto is an ideal production partner for us. Their premier fermentation capabilities in France enable us to meet the demands of our European customers by providing nearshored, high-quality materials.”

AMSilk provides disruptive material solutions to enable the world’s leading brands to address their carbon footprint. Its protein formulations do not contain any substances of animal origin or fossil-based raw materials and leave no microplastics behind. At the end of their life, they are verifiably biodegradable or recyclable. Being biofabricated, these materials can be tailored at a molecular level to specific markets or product requirements.

Evonik and AMSilk extend partnership for sustainable biotech silk materials

Evonik and AMSilk, a global leader in advanced biomaterials based on silk proteins, have deepened their collaboration with a long-term agreement to produce sustainable silk proteins at industrial scale. Building on their initial manufacturing agreement from 2023, the companies have commissioned a manufacturing line at Evonik’s Slovakian site for AMSilk’s high-performance silk. This innovative biomaterial is produced with minimal environmental impact and is designed for use in premium fashion and highly demanding automotive interiors.

AMSilk secures EUR 52M strategic financing to accelerate commercial growth

AMSilk GmbH (“AMSilk”), a frontrunner in advanced biomaterials made from silk-based proteins, today announced it has successfully secured EUR 52 million financing led by existing investor ATHOS (AT Newtec), along with strong participation from fellow existing investors MIG Capital and Novo Holdings. The financing combines EUR 30 million in equity, and EUR 22 million in convertible bonds. This reflects strong investor confidence and long-term commitment in AMSilk’s technology and market potential.

Textile Exchange publishes cotton Life Cycle Assessment study to strengthen impact data

Textile Exchange has published the first in a series of seven Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies designed to improve the quality and robustness of environmental impact data for raw material production across the fashion, textile, and apparel industry. The first LCA study focuses on cotton and addresses critical data gaps and methodology variability through new high-quality data across key producing countries. The study includes organic, regenerative, recycled, and country averages for conventional cotton production systems, providing a clearer picture of the associated environmental impact.

Fashion for Good mobilises industry to adopt mass balance attribution and accelerate decarbonisation

Fashion for Good launches today the Mass Balance Demonstrator project, a collaborative industry initiative to implement and scale the mass balance attribution (MBA) chain-of-custody model for biomass-attributed PET in textile applications. The project represents a concrete step toward accelerating brand-driven decarbonisation across the apparel value chain.

A Powerful Opening: Global thought leaders launch the International Cotton Conference Bremen

The International Cotton Conference Bremen will open on 25 March 2026 in the Parliament building of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen with a keynote session of exceptional calibre. Distinguished international experts will set the stage for the conference by offering incisive perspectives on the most pressing challenges and the defining trends shaping the future of the global cotton trade. Their insights will span a broad spectrum — from geopolitically driven disruptions affecting global supply chains to the opportunities emerging from innovation-led agriculture capable of supporting a growing world population. Together, these opening keynotes will frame the dialogue of the conference, highlighting both the complexity of today’s market environment and the pathways toward a resilient and forward-looking cotton sector.

VANDEWIELE Group at Techtextil 2026 – Textile innovations together

The VANDEWIELEGroup will showcase its latest technologies for technical textiles at Techtextil 2026 in Frankfurt from April 21–24 (Hall 12.0, Stand C21). As a global leader in textile machinery, the group brings together specialised brands to support the evolving demands of high-performance textile applications. Visitors will discover solutions in laboratory testing, yarn joining, yarn feeding and thread tension monitoring, designed to create measurable value across the textile value chain.