PARIS – SuperCircle, the circularity infrastructure startup spun out of the recyclable sneaker label Thousand Fell, has raised $24 million in Series A funding to accelerate its expansion in supply-chain data capture, AI-driven sorting, textile recovery and processing. The round was led by Foundry venture capital, with participation from BBG Ventures, as well as impact investors Renewal Funds and Elemental Impact.
The company was co-founded by Thousand Fell co-founders Stuart Ahlem and Chloe Songer, along with Gilt Groupe co-founder Phong Nguyen.
Much of the new capital will go toward building out SuperCircle’s machine-learning and product-identification models, as well as expanding headcount on the technical team and integrating its sorting tech more deeply across retailers’ supply chains.
The company started working on its AI model in 2022.
“As we’re ingesting data throughout the supply chain, we’re building a model around identification of product, learning about end channels for product – starting with recycling, and we’ve added donation and resale – learning as much as possible about the types of products and product categories and how to sort where,” said Songer, chief executive officer of SuperCircle.
SuperCircle is currently working with more than 75 brands, Songer said, including partners such as Reformation, J.Crew and Vans, as well as big box retailers in the U.S. and Canada.
It currently processes more than 650,000 units per week at its 80,000 square-foot Las Vegas facility.
Some of the funding round will go towards a comparable East Coast site, slated for 2026, and two planned smaller satellite facilities on the horizon. With its current growth trajectory, the company expects to surpass 6 million processed units in 2025 and reach 1 billion units diverted from landfill by the end of 2030.
“It’s about expanding our operational footprint to handle more volume,” according to Songer.
She said that retailers’ mounting losses from unsold goods, returns and damaged inventory have become a major financial pressure point that circular logistics can address.
U.S. brands sit on an estimated $165 billion in excess and unsold inventory each year, much of which costs between $4.50 and $16 per unit simply to store, handle and eventually dispose of, Songer explained. These losses stack up as goods are touched repeatedly in warehouses, linger in distribution centers, or are written off entirely.
“The waste generated through the course of doing business is a cost center already,” Songer said. “How many times you’re touching an item in your supply chain, how long that item is sitting in your warehouse — all of that adds up.”
In the current market, she added, retailers are increasingly looking for solutions that don’t just reduce environmental impact but also recapture monetary value. “We are pitching this as a need-to-have, because it’s helping you recapture cash throughout your supply chain,” she said.
SuperCircle now works with more than 2,200 stores, collecting damaged, returned and excess inventory directly at the source. The ability to capture and identify items at multiple points in a retailer’s supply chain has been key to scaling while lowering cost.
“What makes sorting possible is volume,” she said. “Back in 2023, we were recycling a couple thousand units a month. Now we’re moving 650,000 units a week.”
SuperCircle’s interface
Courtesy of SuperCircle
The company has also positioned itself as a potential partner for brands to comply with coming extended producer responsibility legislation. The SuperCircle execs were highly involved in helping shape California’s SB 707, the first statewide textile EPR bill.
“The law is written such that brands at least have to pay a fee, and they’re going to have to report and provide data,” Songer said. “My goal — and the only way I think this works and isn’t looked at as a tax that raises consumer prices — is if that fee is linked back to something that is business-positive for brands.”
Improving the bottom line will encourage companies and brands to participate, Songer said, instead of putting the responsibility for collecting and sorting on municipalities.
“If we can engage brands in a solution that allows them to shore up their own supply chain, then the bill can have positive outcomes,” she said.
SuperCircle routes recovered items into three main channels including resale, donation and recycling. Resale is executed through partner platforms chosen by brands. The company does not liquidate inventory on its own.
“We are not a reseller,” Songer said. “If the brand has turned that on as a channel, we’re sending to a brand-approved channel.”
Donation has emerged as an increasingly strategic part of the business, focused on matching inventory to real-time needs. SuperCircle works with U.S. non-profits for specific items.
“If a women’s shelter in Nevada needs sports bras, and we are processing an activewear brand, we can do needs-based donation,” she said.
Recycling remains the largest end market, with SuperCircle focusing primarily on applications such as housing insulation, automotive insulation and carpet matting. The company also works closely with footwear recyclers and has achieved 25 percent to 30 percent textile-to-textile recycling over the past 18 months across materials like rubber, cotton and polyester.
“We’ve run really fantastic post-consumer pilots in the chemical space,” Songer said. “We’re starting to build out commitments for volume as facilities move from pilot to commercial.”
Despite rapid growth, the company faces bottlenecks. One is simply adoption: Most retailers are only testing SuperCircle in narrow parts of their supply chain.
“With many partners, we’re just starting to ramp up,” Songer said. “Maybe we’re taking back from one state, or one distribution center, or one product category.”
Inside SuperCircle’s warehouse.
Courtesy of SuperCircle
Capacity constraints also exist downstream. Textile-to-textile recycling markets remain early-stage, and brands require tighter tolerances than many facilities currently provide.
Songer noted that the round closed during one of the toughest venture markets in years. Investors have gravitated toward headline-grabbing AI deals, while retail and climate-related categories have faced heightened scrutiny. Macroeconomic uncertainty complicated matters further.
“Anytime there’s uncertainty in the macroeconomic market, venture — particularly early stage — pulls back,” Songer said. “For many founders right now, it is challenging if you are not a purely AI company.”
Still, SuperCircle’s mix of platform, AI and physical infrastructure resonated with investors precisely because it drives measurable cost savings. “Even in a down market, we’re generating positive P&L outcomes for our partners,” she said.
