Breakthrough Victoria: Xefco video transcript

Text: Breakthrough Victoria Impact Series

Text: In 2024, Breakthrough Victoria invested 2.5 million dollars in Victorian company Xefco, a startup working on technology that will change the global textile industry forever by reducing water pollution.

The textile industry is a massive consumer of water, energy and chemicals. Many people don’t realise it’s actually dyeing and finishing that has the biggest footprint in that supply chain.

Text: Tom Hussey. CEO & Co-founder, Xefco

Tom Hussey: My name’s Tom Hussey, I’m the co-founder and CEO of Xefco.

Tom Hussey: The trouble with the conventional process is that you get these wet processes that the industry uses. The huge amount of water used creates a huge amount of water pollution, and that’s about 20% of global industrial water pollution.

Text: 20% of global industrial water pollution

Text: To dye 1kg of fabric, 200L of water, 300g of chemicals, 5kg of coal.

Tom Hussey: This is a massive problem that needs to be solved and it’s also a very, very big market. So about 600 billion meters of fabric are produced every year.

To combat this, Xefco created a new technology called Ausora, which uses a waterless process to fix colour to fabric, eliminating the need for water completely. It also reduces energy consumption by 90%.

Tom Hussey: Our technology uses plasma to produce really thin but very durable coatings on fabrics in a waterless but also very efficient way. We want this to be the new standard that really changes the game in how fabrics are made.

Text: In 2024 Breakthrough Victoria invested $2.5 million as part of Xefco’s $10.5 million capital raise.

Tom Hussey: The injection of funding has allowed us to build our team even further. So we’re bringing around nine people into the company right now, and that’s across the board from research, development, manufacturing and then even into sales and marketing as well. And that’s really key for us. It takes us from where we’re at now and will allow us to get our first systems into operation and convert the long list of customers we have that we’re working with right now.

Tom Hussey: Beyond Ausora and textiles, there’s huge potential in other industries with our plasma technology and we really want to see this becoming a kind of foundation to build other applications and solve other problems.

Text: We invest for impact. Breakthrough Victoria provides long-term capital to innovation business that will improve people’s lives and benefit Victoria’s economy.