Marks and Spencer invests in digital fit tech startup Texel
Marks & Spencer and Founders Factory have announced a third startup to enter their retail accelerator programme under joint venture, Founders Factory Retail.
Take a bow Texel, which lines up alongside ChargedUp, a mobile phone battery sharing solution and Rocketo, a healthy subscription dog food service. The venture enables consumers to create digital avatars using 3D scanning technology and find the clothing most appropriate to their shape and size. This will complement Optitex which M&S’s design and technology team use to create patterns that are then rendered in 3D to visualise what a garment will look like on an avatar or mannequin.
Paschal Little, Head of Clothing & Home Technology at M&S, says: “Texel’s technology opens up many exciting routes for us. Retail is changing and changing faster than ever before. Investing in businesses like Texel puts us at the sharp end of that change and gives us the tools to test and trial new ways to inspire our customers.”
M&S has taken a stake in Texel and Founder’s Factory Retail will now spend six months working with it. Isabela Chick, Managing Director of Retail, Founders Factory, comments: "The breadth of the businesses backed by M&S so far is testament to their commitment to partnering with startups across all their business units to transform their offer to their customers, and we will see benefits to the startups and to M&S through these collaborations.”
