An eBay UK £100,000 fund is being made available to small businesses providing support to the greener fashion agenda.
Working with the British Fashion Council (BFC), the online marketplace is rewarding companies developing circular fashion technology as the apparel industry looks to find ways to reduce its impact on the environment.
Applications for the Circular Fashion Innovators’ Fund are open now until 3 November 2022, with eBay hoping the greener fashion fund will bring new technology and services to the market that can help people think and shop differently. The particular focus area for this fund is on customer experience, circular inventory & services, and social commerce.
As part of the arrangement, eBay will fund and support the six winning concepts, with the BFC leveraging its industry network and knowledge to help identify and assess the greener fashion solutions it thinks will most likely succeed.
Environmental charity, Hubbub, will support in an advisory role, drawing on its experience in delivering high-profile grant funds such as the one announced by coffee chain Starbucks UK earlier this year.
Lucy Peacock, head of pre-loved at eBay UK, commented: “There’s widespread acceptance across the fashion world that circularity is key for the long-term success of the industry.
“Over the past few years, there have been so many brilliant start-ups and small businesses that are changing the way we think about a circular fashion economy. We hope that the Circular Fashion Innovators’ Fund will help scale these innovative start-ups in size and reach, and in turn make sustainable fashion practices more accessible to more people and businesses.”
Small businesses can apply for the fund via a form on eBay’s website. A shortlist of ten businesses will be invited to pitch to a panel of industry experts from eBay and other organisations, who will then choose half a dozen funding recipients.
Each company will be awarded a £15,000 grant, and a final overall winner will receive an additional £10,000. There will also be a six-week mentoring programme, featuring one-on-one sessions with business leaders from eBay and circular-thinking organisations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Applicants must have been trading for a minimum of six months and a maximum of six years, and be based in the UK and registered with Companies House.
Read more about eBay’s push for circularity on Green Retail World
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
