Supercarb: disrupting the future of apparel
The global market for apparel is just massive. Not only does it account for 1.6% of the world’s GDP, it involves venture-scale businesses across brands, retailers and manufacturers. As with most major industries, it has an outsized environmental impact negatively impacting our water, air, and waste generation, just to name a few. But, with all of these incredible challenges come great opportunities especially with such density of talent moving into this category.
Supercarb was born to reimagine the future of apparel, and we’re thrilled to be an early investor via Shared Future Fund. Founded in 2023 by Activate fellow, Hitesh Manglani, Supercarb is developing a more sustainable solution for high performance apparel using natural and abundant carbohydrates. We sat down with Hitesh to better understand why the shift away from oil-based solutions has been so challenging, and why we - as consumers - don’t have more of these products in our wardrobes and being worn in our daily lives.
How does Supercarb make the business case for transitioning materials away from petro-based solutions?
In 2023, the textile industry produced 124M tonnes of fiber globally, 67% of which were petrochemical-based. This surge aligns with the growing technical fabrics market, fueled by the widespread adoption of athleisure. Petrochemical fibers are strong, inexpensive, and easier to produce at scale. However, they come with significant drawbacks: they account for 10% of global GHG emissions, persist indefinitely in the environment, and bioaccumulate in ecosystems and human bodies.The second-largest fiber alternative, cotton, faces its own challenges. Limited arable land restricts growth, and its cultivation demands 50,000T liters of freshwater and 24% of global insecticide usage.
At Supercarb, we make breakthrough performance textiles using food waste. Our technology allows us to tap into 120M tonnes of food waste to create tunable products that are fire retardant, anti-static, anti-bacterial, and moisture wicking. Our first of its kind biocomposite fiber, made from future forward feedstocks like seaweed and citrus peels, eliminates the need for land, water, pesticides, or insecticides, transforming waste into a valuable resource while trapping biogenic CO2e. Designed with biodegradability in mind, they outperform polyester and cotton in both sustainability and functionality. Our strong value proposition has already garnered letters of intent from some of the world’s largest workwear, sportswear, and children’s sleepwear, companies, signaling a strong future for adoption.
What have been the biggest barriers to getting more sustainable materials into the hands of consumers?
I’d say the biggest failure lies in not meeting the most basic principle of capitalism: profit. Profit is directly tied to the ability to compete with existing materials at cost parity or below. To put this into perspective, polyester fiber represents a $100B market within the $4.5T oil and gas industry. Even if a bio-based fiber offers sustainable advantages and challenges virgin raw materials at cost parity, the oil and gas industry is likely to respond by cutting costs further.
This is where the dollar-to-performance ratio becomes crucial. In the protective market, Supercarb stands out with one of the highest fire-retardancy performances, boasting a limited oxygen index (LOI) of 34%. Compare this to market leaders like DuPont’s Nomex and Kevlar, which have an LOI of 29%, and we achieve a 9.4x dollar-to-performance ratio. Similarly, in the sportswear market, we’re positioned to lead with one of the fastest-drying, antibacterial bio-based fibers, all while avoiding topical chemical finishes that are neither durable nor efficient. By skipping multiple processing steps during the chemical finishing stage, we enhance both sustainability and production efficiency.
What got you personally so excited about working in the apparel and home textile industry?
For 35 years, my dad has run a thriving textile retail store in India’s bustling bāzār. Growing up in a textile family, I was surrounded by fabrics since our home often doubled as his warehouse. I deeply admire his entrepreneurial spirit and have always aspired to follow in his footsteps by starting my venture.
Although I started my career as a Mechanical Engineer, I later pursued a Master’s in Textile Sciences after working with the Department of Atomic Energy and KTM Automotive as a Senior Robotics Engineer. Studying textiles at NC State revealed the fascinating science behind these everyday materials. This knowledge proved invaluable when I spent three years leading R&D at a South Carolina textile mill, where production issues and customer color rejects resulted in thousands, if not millions, of meters of fabric, waiting to be sent to landfills or rot in the warehouse. That experience profoundly influenced me, igniting my desire for change.
There is no better place to bring about change than Silicon Valley, with its highest density of talent and support. I moved to San Francisco to help a Series B food-tech startup develop plant-based meat using fiber-spinning science. After inventing and launching the first-ever whole-cut meat made from fibers, it was time to bring this knowledge back to textiles. At Supercarb, what excites me most is that we challenge the status quo every day by creating future materials that are sustainable, high-performance, and eventually cost-neutral as we scale.
Rapid Fire Questions:
San Francisco or East Bay: San Francisco (I recently moved to East Bay, so I’ll rethink this after spending more time here :)
Cats or Dogs: Dogs
East Coast or West Coast: West Coast
Favorite recent book: Thinking Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman
Favorite podcast: Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell
Favorite quote or mantra: “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow