Hong Kong-based The Mills Fabrica, a business incubator, fund and space for techstyle startups, announced that it has invested US$2 million in MOTIF, an open-knowledge and education platform dedicated to the apparel, fashion, and textile space.
Launched in 2018 by parent company Alvanon, MOTIF is the apparel knowledge hub that connects professionals around the world with the skills and industry expertise they need to transform their businesses and careers.
Fabrica said its investment will help the startup bridge the skills gap within the fashion industry as the platform is designed to empower professionals with the most highly sought-after skills.
“As the fashion industry has been built on centuries of craftsmanship, there’s a clear need for these age-old techniques to combine with new technology,” The Mills Fabrica said.
With the investment and partnership with The Mills Fabrica, MOTIF will gain access to a network and community of industry stakeholders. The partners will work together to promote greater knowledge sharing.
Fabrica said the wider vision is to build an open, collaborative platform that allows brands, retailers, and manufacturers to contribute their expertise towards valuable and high-quality educational content for the fashion industry.
MOTIF’s platform houses a range of courses across different topics such as 3D transformation, apparel costing, and sustainability. The courses are predominantly developed in-house by MOTIF, while some are sponsored or co-created with a growing list of industry partners including Alvanon, Li & Fung and Textile and Fashion Industry Training Centre in Singapore.
“We’re thrilled to be joining MOTIF on their journey of bridging the skills gap within the apparel, fashion, and textiles space. We hope that with Fabrica’s investment and continued support, they can create a platform that will benefit the ecosystem as a whole and foster a more knowledgeable and collaborative techstyle industry for the future,” said The Mills Fabrica founder Vanessa Cheung.
The Fabrica Fund is structured as an evergreen venture capital fund with financial backing from the Nan Fung Group and targets early-stage investments from seed to Series B, with the investment size ranging from $100,000 to $2 million.
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