Ranga Nathan NS
Vice President and Head of Customer Engagement TextileGenesis
TextileGenesis delivers ‘end-to-end traceability’ from fibre-origin to retail
Founded in 2018, TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that enables fashion brands and sustainable textile manufacturers to ensure a reliable, secure and fully digital traceability of their textiles, from the fibre to the consumer, and thereby guarantee their authenticity and origins. The platform provides traceability for textiles, leather and footwear, employing fibre forwards traceability for sustainable and certified materials, and supply chain discovery approach to traceability for conventional materials.
Its innovative traceability mechanism, which addresses both ends of the textile value chain, as well as its network of partners for material certification, and its technology platform guarantee the exchange and tracking of reliable and secure data throughout a material’s life cycle. TextileGenesis platform also identifies and flags supply chain compliance/ legal risks across the value chain from tier 1-4 for brands.
In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Ranga Nathan NS, Vice President and Head of Customer Engagement, shares how TextileGenesis empowers brands and suppliers to overcome traceability challenges while building a transparent, sustainable future.
Why is traceability such a challenge for the fashion industry, and how does TextileGenesis address this?
The fashion industry is under increasing pressure from regulations, consumers, and investors to ensure transparency and accountability. Traceability is the key driving factor for long term sustainability. However, there are many challenges in achieving traceability at scale – fragmented global supply chains, complex supplier networks, and unsubstantiated data.
TextileGenesis overcomes these challenges by delivering ‘end-to-end traceability’ across the supply chain, from fibre-origin to retail. Through the use of digital tokens called Fibercoins, TextileGenesis digitises sustainable inventory at source, ensuring volume reconciliation at each transformative stage across the supply chain. A business rules engine, developed in partnership with industry standards organisations, ensures that transformation processes are aligned with industry standards.
What sets us apart is our engagement with the entire ecosystem—working with over 500+ fibre producers and enabling traceability from the source. Achieving traceability requires more than technology; it demands active collaboration with brands, suppliers, certification bodies, and standards organisations.
Our three tailored solutions for textiles, leather, and footwear bridge the traceability gap beyond tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, empowering brands to meet regulatory and sustainability goals with confidence.
How does TextileGenesis onboard suppliers to the platform?
The onboarding process begins when brands invite their suppliers to join the TextileGenesis platform. Once invited, suppliers follow a straightforward and efficient process to get registered on the platform. We provide strong support to suppliers through:
Weekly supplier Q&A webinars in multiple languages, offering continuous guidance and addressing questions.
Practical tools like user guide videos, PDF manuals, and an online ticketing system, with an AI-powered chatbot launching soon for instant assistance.
On-the-ground expertise through 15+ regional expertise centres, providing support in local languages.
We now have more than 13,000 supply chain roles registered on our platform. It is a testament to our comprehensive approach to supply chain traceability that we have been able to ensure that suppliers across all levels of the supply chain are engaging on our platform to help brands meet their traceability objectives.
What makes TextileGenesis unique in delivering traceability solutions?
TextileGenesis stands out for its award-winning Fibercoin technology, adopted by over 90 per cent of material sustainability standards, making it the most robust traceability platform in the industry.
Some of the key differentiators include:
A robust technology framework that enables traceability with a high level of data security. We have recently achieved our SOC-2 Type II certification.
A global delivery team that provides high quality customer engagement across all levels of the supply chain in local languages.
A strong focus on emerging legislations in the sustainability space – we have launched many features and modules like Risk Management, LCA integration, Product Compliance etc, which allow brands to manage legislative requirements across multiple regions of the world.
A constant focus on customer success. We regularly engage with all our stakeholders to ensure that our technology development keeps pace with their requirements.
How does TextileGenesis help brands and supply chain organisations meet their traceability requirements?
TextileGenesis’ early involvement with key stakeholders, other than just retail brands, is critical to our ability to scale. By engaging with fibre producers and standards organisations, we have been able to drive near real-time traceability in a fibre-forwards manner. Delivered through a SaaS model, our platform enables each actor in the supply chain to ‘own’ the traceability data that is captured on the platform. A block-chain inspired approach to data security ensures that other than retail brands (and some other key stakeholders), data visibility is restricted to a one-up-one-down view – each organisation in the supply can only view the data that they are receiving from their direct supplier and the data that they are sending to their direct customer.
TextileGenesis also allows flexibility when it comes to traceability approaches. Brands can choose between Fiber-to-Retail (FTR), Supply Chain Discovery (SCD) and Supply Chain Mapping (SCM) to achieve their traceability objectives. Over the last few years, we have also enabled traceability beyond apparel and textiles, with our Leather and Footwear modules as well.
Can you share examples of how TextileGenesis supports global brands like H&M and Lenzing?
Our partnerships with brands like H&M and Lenzing highlight the scalability and impact of our platform.
For H&M, we have enabled traceability for hundreds of millions of products across categories such as recycled polyester, sustainable viscose, and organic cotton. This has helped the company meet regulatory requirements like the Norwegian Transparency Act and strengthen its sustainability credentials.
With Lenzing, we have achieved full traceability for its flagship fibres— TENCEL and EcoVero—across 20+ countries. Using our forensic verification methods, we ensure authenticity throughout their supply chain, creating trust and transparency.
What does the future hold for TextileGenesis?
Sustainability is no longer optional. As consumers, brands and other stakeholders in the apparel industry continue to embrace the move towards sustainable material, traceability will increasingly become the bedrock for transparency and sustainability.
At TextileGenesis, we understand that the future lies in building a strong network of brands, suppliers, certification bodies, and standards organisations to drive traceability at scale. As regulations and consumer expectations continue to evolve, our focus will remain on delivering customer success through technological innovation while maintaining data integrity and engagement across the supply chain.
By creating a traceability system that is efficient, scalable, and accessible, we aim to set new standards for sustainability and accountability in the textile industry.
Published on: 07/01/2025
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
