Winner: Material innovation of the year 2023. The Mills Fabrica has invested in Colorifix, a company which has pioneered the first entirely biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles.

With the aim of creating positive social impact for future generations, The Mills Fabrica's focus is on incubating and investing in sustainable businesses and building an international community with like-minded entrepreneurs and strategic partners.

One of the key investments The Mills Fabrica has nurtured is Colorifix, a company that has pioneered the first entirely biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles.

Using a synthetic biology approach, the company offers a radically different solution to incumbent dyeing technologies that entirely cuts out the use of harsh chemistry and leads to huge reductions in energy and water consumption.

Judges comments: "Colorifix offers a transformative new way of dying textiles using biofabrication that can be applied to both traditional fibres and the new generation of biomaterials. It's a crucial advancement for the industry given that pretty much all textiles – no matter how sustainable – are ultimately coloured and most dyes today are petroleum-based."

Studio: The Mills Fabrica Investment Fund
Project: Colorifix