eBay UK and the British Fashion Council have announced the six winners of a new circular fashion fund.

The Circular Fashion Innovator’s Fund is aimed at helping grow small companies which develop sustainable fashion solutions.

The fund will dish out £100,000 in grants – with the six winners given £15,000 each.

The overall winner, which is yet to be announced, will receive an additional £10,000 grant.

Solutions of the winners included a shoe that grows with a growing child's foot and natural dyes made from food waste.

“Circularity is the future of fashion, and over recent years start-ups and small businesses have been at the forefront of solutions to make it a reality,” said Lucy Peacock, head of pre-loved, eBay UK. “The winners of the Circular Fashion Innovator’s Fund epitomise this, and we hope that the mentoring and grant will help scale these promising businesses in size and reach, and in turn make sustainable fashion practices more accessible to more people.”

The winners include By Rotation, which describes itself as the world's first social network where consumers can rent and lend quality items to each other and Circular Textiles Foundation, a business linking clothing design, takeback and recycling technologies using QR technology and certification systems.

The Seam, an on-demand tailoring service making clothing alterations and repairs accessible through tech, also won the cash prize, along with SAGES, which creates natural dyes made from food waste.

Pip and Henry, the designer of unique sustainable shoes for kids, and Circular Inc. Ltd, which provides circular design and sustainable manufacturing to accompany radio frequency identification (RFID)-assisted commercial repair and upcycling of clothing were also finalists.

“We are delighted to work with eBay to drive transformative, positive change by supporting entrepreneurs that are helping to deliver circular solutions for the fashion industry of tomorrow," said Caroline Rush, chief executive, British Fashion Council. "The Circular Fashion Innovator’s Fund champions pioneers in this space, and we were incredibly impressed by the expertise, commitment and leadership demonstrated by each of our winners. We’d like to congratulate all six winners on what they have achieved so far and look forward to supporting them as they build, scale and thrive.”

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