UK FashionTech Startup Ponda Secures €2M To Advance Sustainable Fashion Innovation

The oversubscribed round was co-led by Faber (Lisbon) and Counteract (London), with participation from PDS Ventures, Evenlode Impact, and the Royal College of Art, bringing total funding to €5.6 million.

This combines venture capital with non-dilutive support from Innovate UK, plus international recognition via the H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award and King Charles III’s Terra Carta Design Lab.

“We’ve designed BioPuff to meet the demanding performance standards of leading brands as a direct alternative to synthetic and animal-based insulation, while remaining cost competitive to enable widespread adoption,” says Julian Ellis-Brown, CEO and co-founder of Ponda. “Every jacket filled with BioPuff doesn’t just avoid emissions, it directly funds peatland restoration one of the planet’s most powerful carbon sinks.”

In 2025, Europe’s sustainable FashionTech sector has seen strong activity, highlighting growing investor interest in tech-driven sustainability solutions.

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Paris-based Fairly Made raised €15 million to enhance its platform measuring fashion’s environmental and social impact while London’s Fit Collective secured €3.4 million to scale AI-powered sizing technology that reduces waste and returns totaling €18.4 million in sector investments so far.

Within this landscape Ponda’s Seed round aligns with early-stage funding trends supporting circular, data-driven and sustainable innovations in fashion, offering a unique UK-based focus on regenerative, plant-based materials.

Matt Isaacs, co-founder and partner at Counteract, adds: “The Ponda team embodies the rare combination of deep scientific expertise and visionary regenerative leadership; their ability to navigate the frontier of wetland regeneration and material science to develop the scalable, carbon-negative solution of BioPuff is profoundly impressive. We are delighted to back a team with the capabilities to make planet-positive materials the global standard.”

Founded in 2020, Ponda is a biomaterials company developing BioPuff, a regenerative, plant-based insulation derived from wetland crops grown on restored peatlands. Emerging from Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, Ponda combines ecosystem restoration, regenerative agriculture, and clean manufacturing to redefine performance materials.

BioPuff, made from Typha through paludiculture the sustainable cultivation of rewetted peatlands is a first-of-its-kind insulation. By integrating material innovation with ecosystem restoration, Ponda produces high-performance thermal insulation at multi-tonne scale. BioPuff matches the thermal properties of goose down, is more cost-effective, and comes from plants that actively regenerate wetlands.

“By coupling regenerative coastal wetland farming with an advanced material with strong potential in textiles and beyond, Ponda is well positioned to unlock significant business opportunities across multiple industries while delivering meaningful biodiversity impact at scale” said Rita Sousa, Partner at Faber.

Degraded peatlands worldwide emit 2 gigatonnes of carbon annually and pose increasing flood risks, according to Ponda. The company collaborates with landowners to rewet these areas, cultivate fast-growing Typha crops and transform the biomass into high-performance fibres.

One of the farmers in Ponda’s supply chain, Will Barnard, added: “After this year’s flooding, it’s obvious that restored wetlands can play a pivotal role in protecting farmland and farmers’ livelihoods. Working with Ponda shows these landscapes can stay productive even under pressures like climate change and create new commercial opportunities. Initiatives like this help push the government’s agenda forward while strengthening rural resilience and future income streams.”

By cultivating Typha on rewetted peatlands, Ponda turns a major carbon source into a sink, potentially avoiding up to 30 tonnes of CO₂e per hectare annually. At scale the system could regenerate millions of hectares, supporting gigatonne-level carbon reductions.

Ponda’s Bristol facility hosts pilot-scale fibre processing, blending and prototyping, enabling rapid industrial-standard production of BioPuff. The company collaborates with global brands such as Berghaus, Stella McCartney, Parley for the Oceans and Sheep Inc., providing prototypes and co-developing garments.

While early efforts focus on outdoor and fashion apparel, BioPuff’s high-performance insulation is suitable for a wide range of applications, including soft toys, home textiles, upholstery, bedding, and other products requiring lightweight, warm, and durable materials.

About Ponda

Ponda (formerly Saltyco) is a biomaterials company creating regenerative textiles from wetland-grown fibres. Its flagship product, BioPuff®, a sustainable goose-down alternative, provides insulation while restoring wetlands, capturing carbon, enhancing biodiversity and supporting farmers with traceable, climate-positive materials from plant to finished product.