Important investments in technology and innovation in the clothing industry in the second quarter of 2025

This article is part of the report on the clothing industry for the second quarter of 2025.

Report index:

Based on the financial reports and industry news from the second quarter of 2025, you will find a summary of the most important investments in technology and innovation in the areas of fashion, beauty and retail.

Leading e-commerce companies drove innovations. The Berlin online retailer Zalando SE took over the 3D technology specialist Deepar to improve the digital shopping experience. The Düsseldorf The Platform Group AG acquired a majority stake in the software provider Fintus and founded its own fulfillment company to strengthen its technological infrastructure. The fashion retailer Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf also invested strongly in artificial intelligence to personalize content production and increase efficiency, while the discounter Kik introduced a AI-based software solution for its planning and distribution processes.

In the area of ​​material innovation and recycling, German start-ups received significant financing. The Münster Recycling start-up Eeden collected 18 million euros for the construction of a demonstration system for chemical recycling. The German recycling company Matterr also received a strategic investment from the Danish Group Bestseller.

In addition, the Berlin Ki start-up Parloa, which develops AI solutions for customer discussions, caused a sensation with a funding round of $ 120 million. Finally, the “Textilfabrik 7.0” project was launched in Mönchengladbach, a technology center funded with 25 million euros that focuses on digitization and circular production in the textile industry.

Technology and innovation investments in the second quarter of 2025: a final list

The second quarter of 2025 recorded a significant acceleration of the investments in technology and innovation in the fashion industry. In view of the market volatility, regulatory pressure and urgent need for greater efficiency, companies invested capital in artificial intelligence, digital product development and traceability of the supply chain. This strategic change reflects a more comprehensive industry change in which data -controlled solutions are no longer a niche, but a core component for future growth and resistance.

Here are the most important companies that made remarkable investments in technology and innovation during this period:

Artificial intelligence and data platforms

• Talon.one: The German provider of Loyalty and Promotion software for companies, which includes customers H&M and Adidas, collected $ 135 million in a growth financing round to speed up innovations and to expand its market position in the USA, Great Britain and Europe.
• Gensmo: The AI-based fashion agent based in the United States, who uses AI models to offer recommendations for purchase, concluded a seed financing round of over $ 60 million just a few months after his start.
• Alta: The AI-based personnel shopping and stylist app, which offers individual outfits and purchasing recommendations, collected eleven million US dollars in a seed financing round listed by Menlo Ventures in order to accelerate product development.
• Markmi: The Belgium-based fashion-tech start-up collected 1.1 million euros in seed financing in order to accelerate the introduction of its AI-controlled Markdown assistant. This enables merchandising teams to make data-controlled price decisions.
• Google: The US technology giant expanded its AI functions within its shopping platform and introduced a virtual “trying out” function with personal photos and a price tracking system for “agent checkout”.
• Debenhams Group: The British fashion group and parent company of Boohoo and PrettyYLATTENCHING signed a multi-year partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in order to scale the introduction of generative AI tools to optimize operating processes and to improve customer personalization.
• Fairly Made: The French Green-Tech company secured 15 million euros in funds to speed up its transformation into a technology-oriented company and further develop its SAAS platform for the traceability of the supply chain and the impact measurement.
• Alvanon: The pioneer of fashion technology presented his AI-based phygital approach and his “Sizing Intelligence Ecosystem”. This integrates physical fit, digital twins and AI analyzes to help brands adapt designs to real body shapes from consumers.
• Wair: The technology company based in Amsterdam presented its AI-controlled solutions for inventory management. These are characterized by AI agents who analyze, predict and automate inventory decisions at the level of individual inventory units.
• Chainbalance Ai: The company explained its advanced AI model for “smart repenish”. This uses machine learning and probabilistic forecasts to optimize the inventory based on historical data, weather patterns and advertising actions.
• Chatblu: The Ki start-up based in London, which has developed an autonomous AI agent for the cross-platform inventory management, collected $ 500,000 in a pre-seed financing round.
• Hermes: The French luxury house announced that in 2025 it will form a committee for the control of artificial intelligence to monitor the use of AI in the areas of data analysis, logistics automation and decision support.

Digital product development and 3D technology

• Browzwear: The market leader in the field of digital 3D product development for fashion took over Lalaland.aia pioneer based in Amsterdam for hyperrealistic, AI-generated fashion models to integrate generative AI directly into his workflow.
• Zalando: The German online retailer took over the London 3D technology specialist Deepar and his associated Shopar platform to expand its 3D content and skills in the field of virtual experiences.
• Byborre: The textile innovation studio based in Amsterdam started the textile room. This digital platform offers designers access to configurable 3D knitting fabrics with direct visual feedback and on-demand production.
• Clo Virtual Fashion: The parent company of the 3D fashion design software Clo took over Swatchbooka provider of digital material solutions to create the world’s largest digital fabric database.

Supplier, traceability and logistics

• N Brown: The British retail group implemented in cooperation with Akeneeo A new product information management system (PIM) to improve the customer experience and to standardize data points via its brands Simply Be, Jacamo and JD Williams.
• Certilogo: The company emphasized its “Secure by Design ™” methodology for its secure Digital Product Passport platform, which is used by over 80 global fashion brands to ensure data integrity and to establish connections between physical products and its digital identities.
• Recover: The Spanish manufacturer of recycled cotton went a partnership with the French traceability platform Texti layer to test a system for digital persecution of recycled fibers from origin to the finished product using clear digital tokens.
• Positive luxury: The platform for sustainability certification went with a partnership Buyerdock In order to offer your accredited brands access to advanced digital product passport technology for consistent product traceability and to protect against counterfeits.
• The Platform Group: The German E-Commerce Group founded its own fulfillment company, TPG Fulfillment GmbH, and took over a 12,000 square meter logistics store to handle logistics for its platform partners.
• Lectra: The technology company emphasized how its e-commerce platform Neteven has expanded your network with the integration of TikKK Shop. This enables fashion brands to manage sales on the social media channel via their central SaaS solution.

Strategic technology -oriented mergers and takeovers as well as investments

• Inditex: The Spanish moderate terminated an investment in Theker robotics a Spanish start-up that develops intelligent, AI-based robots for process automation in sectors such as logistics and retail.
• H&M Group: The Swedish fashion group participated with a minority stake Centraa provider of e-commerce platforms geared to fashion to support its next phase of global growth and accelerate research and development.
• Mysize, Inc.: The Israeli company for AI-controlled size solutions acquired the most important assets from Percentilea European resale marketplace, and thus marked its strategic entry into the circular economy sector in the fashion industry.