Best Fashion Tech Companies in New Zealand
The 95 best Fashion Tech companies in New Zealand in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: NanoLayr.
Fashion Tech in New Zealand is a small but genuinely interesting sector right now, and this page ranks its 95 tracked companies by disclosed equity funding and recent funding momentum. Total disclosed capital sits at just $11M, which tells you something about where this market is in its maturity curve.
NanoLayr leads the directory at $6M raised, with Designer Wardrobe and NZ Natural Fibres each at $2M behind it. The funding concentration is real: three companies account for the bulk of that $11M pool, while names like aeroe are still at zero disclosed. And the hot themes aren't random. Eco-fashion, innovative weaves and upcycled apparel are dominating conversation among founders and the investors backing them, including Icehouse Ventures and New Zealand Growth Capital Partners. Globally, fashion tech hit roughly $24.7B in 2021, and mobile is accelerating things fast, with median install growth running at about 17% YoY across fashion retail apps. Internationally, Newme's $18M Series A and Zyod's AI-driven manufacturing push show the scale of ambition building elsewhere. New Zealand's version is quieter, but the materials-first angle, particularly sustainable fibres, gives it a distinct identity worth watching.
Our analysis of 219 Fashion Tech companies
$16.5b in tracked funding; 94% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2022.
Ranked: Best Fashion Tech companies in New Zealand
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NanoLayr Provider of ceramic nanofibers | $6M | 74 mo ago | Series A | Vlad Stolojan Co-Founder | 2009 | WordPressPleskMySQL+20 | — |
| 2 | Designer Wardrobe Online marketplace and rental platform offering pre-loved fashion products | $2M | 109 mo ago | Seed | — | 2012 | ScalaPlayEnvoy+6 | — |
| 3 | NZ Natural Fibres Provider of biocomposite materials | $2M | 52 mo ago | Funding Raised | Colin McKenzie CEO | 2020 | — | — |
| 4 | Sapro-Tech Provider and manufacturer of mycelium-based leather alternative fabrics | $1M | 35 mo ago | Seed | Keith Hudson Founder & CSO | 2021 | — | — |
| 5 | 77 Pieces Virtually try clothes online | $650K | 183 mo ago | Deadpooled | Sebastian Marino Co-Founder & CEO | 2010 | Google Font APIHSTSCloudflare Browser Insights+3 | — |
| 6 | aeroe Internet first brand offering bags for cyclists | — | — | Unfunded | Mike Maguire Co-Founder | 2019 | Cart FunctionalityShopifySentry+30 | 1 launch |
| 7 | Aileisure Internet first brand offering eco-friendly casual wear for men and women | — | — | Unfunded | Indie Heath Co-Founder | 2018 | — | — |
| 8 | Albie Nursing Attire Designer and retailer of breastfeeding-friendly apparel for mothers and children | — | — | Unfunded | Laura Kannan Owner | 2018 | Cart FunctionalityShopifyReact+26 | — |
Top 5 Fashion Tech companies in New Zealand
#1
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2021 · 2 employees$1Mraised▾
Provider and manufacturer of mycelium-based leather alternative fabrics. It offers visually appealing textiles by leveraging the inherent properties of mycelia along with cultivation methods.
- Jun 2023Seed$1M
#2
Funding Raised · Christchurch, Canterbury · founded 2020$1.5Mraised▾
Provider of biocomposite materials. It blends sheep wool fibres and hemp plant fibres to develop renewable natural fibres. It develops yarns using these fibres for applications in the textile sector.
- Feb 2022Grant (prize money)$1.3M
- Grant (prize money)$202K
#3
Series A · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2009 · 30 employees$6Mraised▾
Provider of ceramic nanofibers. It develops nanofibre-based functional textiles. Its product portfolio includes nanofibre-based air filtration solutions for mask manufacturing, thermoplastic nanofibres-based fibre-reinforced composites, and nanofibers for acoustic soundproofing. It is based on biological filtration and helps to prevent viruses and bacteria.
- Apr 2020Series A$6M
#4
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2012 · 13 employees$1.7Mraised▾
Online marketplace and rental platform offering pre-loved fashion products. The product catalog includes apparel like dresses, tees & tops, playsuits, footwear, and accessories like jewelry, eyewear, gloves, headwear, and more. The company also offers postal try-on before renting the products.
- May 2017Seed$1.7M
- Mar 2015Seed$18K
#5
Deadpooled · Wellington, Wellington · founded 2010$650Kraised▾
77 Pieces offers platform technology that enables customers to virtually try on and predict how clothing will look and fit by integrating with the web browser. The Company sells to apparel brands that in-turn provide the 77 Pieces Platform to their customers for viewing, try-on, styling and social commerce. The Company enables these brands to deliver Fit Prediction(SM), a personalized, photo-realistic digital rendering of any specific person’s body wearing clothing that can be purchased. This enables the brand’s customers to “virtually” try-on items in order to find the right fit.
- Mar 2011Seed$650K
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Fashion Tech coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Textiles & Wearable Materials is moving in New Zealand
A read on the academic research around Textiles & Wearable Materials — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 3 New Zealand-affiliated papers.
- Auckland University of Technology1
- AgResearch1
- University of Otago1
- Victoria University of Wellington1
- Composite material2
- PEDOT:PSS1
- Differential scanning calorimetry1
- Scanning electron microscope1
- Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy1
- Rehabilitation1
- Mainstream1
- Inclusion (mineral)1
- Physical medicine and rehabilitation1
- Scopus1
Where textiles tech is researched across New Zealand
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.