Zara owner Inditex launches fund to finance textile innovation

MADRID (Reuters) - Zara owner Inditex has launched a fund to invest around 50 million euros ($54.75 million) in innovation projects, mainly in the textile sector.

Spanish website El Confidencial on Friday reported Inditex's decision to invest in a new fund, which the company confirmed to Reuters.

The new fund, to be managed by the firm Mundi Ventures, aims to support the fashion giant's strategy of backing new start-ups to find new materials or technologies that have a lower impact on the environment.

Inditex, which has pledged to halve emissions in its entire supply chain by 2030, has invested in U.S. firms such as Circ, which focuses on textile-to-textile recycling, and more recently in Galy, a U.S. start-up developing a process to produce cotton in laboratories from plant cells.

Inditex has committed to making 25% of its garments from new fibres that do not yet exist on an industrial scale, and is investing heavily in their development.

($1 = 0.9133 euros)

(Reporting by Corina Pons; editing by Charlie Devereux and Elaine Hardcastle)