Swedish textile recycling company Renewcell, founded by innovators from Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2012, has been looking for a new owner to safeguard and advance its patented process to produce Circulose pulp from 100 percent textile waste ever since it filed for bankruptcy in February 2024.
The private equity company Altor Equity Partners has now acquired the bankruptcy assets of the textile recycling company Renewcell for an undisclosed sum, creating a new company called Circulose, like the product it produces. Altor is part owner of several sports-related brands, such as the Rossignol Group (55 percent), Revolution Race, Dale of Norway and the XXL retail chain with 80 stores in Norway, Sweden and Finland, for instance. Already, Circulose has started collaborating with many brands to produce textiles with recycled materials.
Circulose is the only material globally that has been produced at scale from 100 percent textile waste, based on a closed-loop, chemical recycling process. The patented process to produce Circular pulp from 100 percent textile waste is unique and has the potential to make the textile and fashion industry circular and enable a shift to a low-carbon economy.
Today, the material is produced in a strategically located factory in Ortviken, a region with historically significant know-how from the pulp and paper industry. The Circulose pulp is used to spin fibers, which are then turned into fabrics and used for new high-quality textile products. Altor invests in safeguarding this innovation and building on Circulose as the first puzzle piece to create a global player for next-generation materials to replace virgin cotton and man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCF).
