Europe's CEMATEX launches start-up valley to support entrepreneurship

The owner of ITMA and ITMA branded exhibitions, CEMATEX will provide selected young enterprises with solutions for the textile and garment industry with a grant to exhibit at the Start-Up Valley during ITMA 2023. The CEMATEX Start-Up Grant will cover the rental costs of a special design stand and fittings, as well as entitlements such as business matching, CEMATEX said in a media release.

CEMATEX president Ernesto Maurer, said: “We are excited to launch this initiative to attract innovative start-ups to ITMA 2023. The Start-Up Valley will be a good complement to the ITMA Research & Innovation Lab.

“As the largest textile technology exhibition attracting leading textile and garment manufacturers from around the world, ITMA offers young entrepreneurs a useful platform to put their innovations in front of a global audience, to find investors and collaborators and to leverage industry connections and professional networks.”

In addition to exhibiting at ITMA 2023, Start-Up Valley exhibitors can also take part in various onsite activities, including speaking at the Innovator Xchange and participating in the ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award and Innovation Video Showcase.

To be eligible for the grant, start-ups must have a product or service that is within ITMA 2023’s exhibit profile. The company should also be incorporated for not more than 8 years, and has either generated revenue for at least a year or raised capital from investors or grants from other incubator programmes.

A key selection criterion is the environmental, economic and/or disruptive impact of the innovation, solution or product. Other criteria include the scalability of the innovation and its relevance to ITMA’s theme: Transforming the World of Textiles, and the four trending topics, namely advanced materials, automation and digital future, sustainability and circularity, and innovative technologies.

Applicants are also advised to share information such as reference partners to institutions, associations, or commercial partners and the innovative and intellectual content for their products, services, patents or applications, and if they have won any awards.

A panel of industry experts has been invited to form the selection committee to evaluate the start-ups. It comprises Chris McHugh, Dry Fibre Development Manager, Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing (United Kingdom); Elin Larsson, Programme Manager, RISE Research Institutes (Sweden) and Ruggero Frezza, President, M31 Italia Srl (Italy).

Interested start-ups may apply for the CEMATEX grant by June 30, 2022. Successful applicants will be advised by October 28, 2022.

ITMA 2023 will be held at Fiera Milano Rho, Milan, from June 8 to 14, 2023. The exhibit profile has been expanded to include a dedicated chapter on textile reinforcement structures for composites. The deadline for stand space application is March 15, 2022.

The last ITMA exhibition, held in Barcelona in 2019, featured exhibits from the entire textile and garment making value-chain, including raw materials and fabrics. It drew a record-breaking participation of 1,717 exhibitors from 45 countries and visitorship of over 105,000 from 136 countries.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)