Renaissance Fiber
Name: Daniel Yohannes
Company: Renaissance Fiber
Email: : yohannes@renaissance-fiber.com
Phone: 860-857-5987
Founding Team
Michael Long, Ph.D, Founder, Chief Technology Officer
Daniel Yohannes, Ph.D, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
Andrew Hume, Ph.D, Chief Sustainability Officer
Bruce Maxwell, MBA, Chief Financial Officer
Will Joyner, JD, Kilpatrick Townsend, General Counsel
Billy Cooper, BS, VP, Operations
TBN: Chief Revenue Officer
Industry
Textiles
Year Founded
2018
Financing
- $380,000 Raised to date
- Nominal Revenue: 2022
Target Markets
- Apparel
- Home Goods
- Nonwovens (Hygiene, etc.)
Business Description
Renaissance Fiber (RF) is a North Carolina clean-tech manufacturer of hemp and other natural fibers with a vision to reimage the textile industry working for, and not against, nature.
RF operates the only all-American sustainable hemp fiber supply chain using a patented process that is exceptionally low in cost, Ecologically InvisibleTM, and sequesters carbon at geologic time scales, resulting in a net positive impact on the planet to pass on to RF partners and consumers.
Differentiators
- Ecologically InvisibleTM
- Economically Affordable
- High Quality Textile Hemp Fiber
- IP: Patent Protected Technology
- Fully Domestic Supply Chain
- Carbon negative operations
Traction
Raw fiber is purchased from hemp fiber suppliers, degummed, refined and sold as textile fiber to yarn spinners, apparel, home-goods, and nonwoven brands. RF currently operates through toll manufacturing scalable up to 6 million pounds of degummed fiber per month. RF hemp fiber is of the highest quality, being spun with cotton, wool, and synthetic yarn blends, ranging up to 75% hemp and 1-20 singles, and used in knit and woven textiles, such as t-shirts, denim jeans, beanies.
Team
The core RF leadership team are specialists in environmental science, intellectual property, and finance, and are rounded out by fiber & yarn experts and a deeply experienced textile Advisory Board. RF has secured contracting agreements and partnerships to establish the first fully operational all-American sustainable hemp fiber supply chain.
Recognition & Milestones
- v2022 Pace Project Impact Award Winners
- v2022 NC IDEA BEC Growth Grant winners
- v2022 NC BIONEER Grant Winner
- v2021 Venture Winston Grant winners
- v2021 Finalist for The Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Prize.
- v2019 Awardee of an NC IDEA SEED Grant
- vDesigned/Built 1st NC-based hemp fiber mill refining facility
- vGlobal IP protection
- vUnder Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification review
- vCompleted LCA (internal), confirming our significantly lower environmental impact compared to industry competitors