Meet the Founders of Nanoloom, Victoria Mataczynski and Alexander Seifalian: “The fibre was so strong and it harnessed graphene’s properties so well that it broke one of the looms!”

1. Describe your startup in two sentences.

We’re taking a material originally engineered to be non-toxic and safely biodegradable in the human body for nerve regeneration purposes, and we’re turning it into eco-friendly fibres and fabrics for apparel. It’s based on graphene and is ultra-high performing, cost-effective and recyclable and our first focus is a replacement for stretch fibres.

Victoria Mataczynski and Alexander Seifalian, founders of Nanoloom

2. What gave you the inspiration?

We were both passionate about the environmental issues facing the planet, particularly from non-biodegradable and toxic plastics entering our water streams and food systems. We were looking at the impact this was starting to show in human health, like in cardiovascular risk factors, and we also knew that a material built to meet a medical grade would have a lot of potential to do good in other fields. On top of that, the graphene element opens up a lot of potential to take an industry like textiles, which is stuck on old innovations, into the future. By this we don’t just mean better mechanical performance – imagine lightweight clothes that adjust to your body temperature or can charge your phone.

3. How did you meet?

We met many years ago, a few months after Victoria had moved to London from Australia. We'd both been invited by a mutual friend to the summer party of one of the oldest private members' clubs in London, founded just after the Napoleonic Wars. As the two oddest people in the room, it was natural for us to gravitate towards each other and we started to talk about what we were each working on at the time. We both had a passion for environmental challenges facing the planet and it all sprung from there.

4. What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?

Our greatest success was turning the material into an ultra-high performing fibre and then fabric using regular looms, which no one believed we could do, and doing it as a slot-in solution for brands and mills. The fibre was so strong and it harnessed graphene’s properties so well that it broke one of the looms!

Our greatest challenge has been producing sufficient quantities to meet demand. There are so many applications for this fibre, and so many brands and mills and designers eager to work with the material, but while we are in the process of scaling our production we have to be selective in who we can supply at this stage.

5. What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?

Apparel as an industry is one of the biggest polluters our planet across its entire supply chain and product life cycle. This negative impact is present in every facet from water consumption to emission generation to forever-plastic waste. Our material is on track to replace traditional synthetic fibres and fabrics used in clothing at a large scale, because we’ve worked to make it cost effective and easily adoptable.

This means we’ll be replacing toxic materials with a recyclable material that is wholly non-toxic and biodegrades in certain conditions. This impact will ultimately be measured in the quantities of toxic, non-biodegradable waste that will be removed from the fashion supply chain. In addition, our preliminary data, which has been externally audited, also shows a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions from production of our fibre compared to traditional synthetics.

6. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?

Alex – Punk rocker 

Victoria – Jet fighter pilot

7. If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?

Alex – Medical innovation

Victoria – Another startup 

8. What would you save in a fire?

Alex – My children

Victoria – My cat

9. Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?

Alex – My dad, he achieved a lot and I learned a lot from him about hard work 

Victoria – Also my parents, they made it through being refugees to give us a better life

10. What is your happy track?

Alex – Happy by Pharell Williams

Victoria – Rome by Bon Entendeur

11. What’s your motto?

Alex - Never give up

Victoria – If a thing is humanly possible, consider it within your reach

12. What are you most looking forward to in the next year?

Nanoloom’s material getting into real products on the market!