LFW invites applicants to Circular Changemakers

By N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe 

New Delhi, Aug 22 The fashion conscious are no longer looking at fast fashion to make a style statement, especially in the current scenario. Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) recognises this, and in a bid to promote sustainable fashion, it will hold a sustainable fashion bootcamp for a handful of selected labels to pitch their value proposition and business model to an esteemed panel of investors on Sustainable Fashion Day at the upcoming edition of LFW. They will get the opportunity to receive investments and partnerships through their pitch to a group of potential strategic investors from reputed impact investment funds.Circular Changemakers welcomes applications from start-ups across the country to take part. One of the key criterias will be the increasing the use of alternative and sustainable inputs and minimizing wastes. From the pool of applications, up to 6 start-ups will be chosen to participate in a bootcamp by industry experts. The three-module bootcamp focuses on providing visibility to change-makers in the sustainable and circular fashion space, exposing them to important aspects of ‘Capital Raising’, ‘Business & Financial Modelling’ and ‘Investor Pitch Development’.

Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap said: “As a first of its kind investor readiness program designed to surface innovations in the sustainable fashion space, we were excited by the industry’s response to the first edition of Circular Changemakers. At Intellecap and Circular Apparel Innovation Factory, we recognize the need to build the ecosystem and capabilities through such initiatives and heartened to see the cohort from the first edition gaining access to leading accelerator programs like FFG, Target etc and becoming attractive investment avenues for the funders and investors in the ecosystem. Circular Changemakers is an example of Intellecap CAIF’s continued commitment to providing such innovators with access to capital, networks and knowledge all through their journey and we are excited to bring the second edition along with IMG Reliance”.

Darshana Gajare, Lead Sustainable Fashion at IMG Reliance said, “Circular Design Challenge and Circular Changemakers is our commitment to provide a platform for upcoming brands and start-ups working tirelessly towards making fashion and textiles a cleaner business. The first edition of Circular Changemakers brought to the fore promising start-ups across fibre to technology innovations and gave them access to key industry investors and partners. With Sustainability at the forefront, now more than ever, we’re looking forward to the upcoming edition with CAIF.”

Circular Design Challenge (CDC), an initiative by R Elan’s ‘Fashion For Earth’, Lakmé Fashion Week and UN Environment- India’s first and largest sustainability award in fashion partnered with Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to launch the program.