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Investment Opportunity: PDS Innovation Awards

We’re delighted to announce that Fashion District is supporting The PDS Innovation Awards! Celebrating the ongoing partnership between Common Objective (CO) and PDS Limited, the awards offer early-stage businesses the opportunity to pitch in front of PDS investors.

About the awards

PDS Limited is a leader in enabling the next generation of sustainable and scalable fashion tech start-ups. PDS Venture Tech, the venture arm of PDS Limited, has already invested in a raft of businesses – from Materra to Good on You, Unspun, and many more. Could you be their next investment? The PDS Innovation Awards is your opportunity to pitch to the PDS investment team, plus benefit from promotion to the 50k+ Common Objective fashion industry base.

For the purpose of the awards, the judging panel considers sustainability to encompass positive impact for people, as well as addressing environmental concerns.

How it works

By completing the application form below and creating a CO business profile, you enter the competition to win a chance to pitch in front of the PDS investment team. In this process, the CO team will pre-screen a shortlist of the most innovative and exciting start-ups. Out of these, PDS will select a few that will be invited to pitch. Judging these pitches, PDS will select a winner to be considered for investment or other support from PDS.

All shortlisted applicants will benefit from promotion across the CO platform. All applicants benefit from creating a free business profile on CO, and joining the global industry community dedicated to sustainability best practice. 

Who can apply

For your business to be eligible for the awards, you must:

  • Be operating in any aspect of the fashion value chain
  • Offer a tech-enabled and scalable product
  • Have achieved product-market fit with a projection to create future revenue streams
  • Be a sustainability-driven for-profit business

What’s in it for you

  • Through your free business profile on CO, you will benefit from access to CO’s global industry community dedicated to sustainability best practice.
  • All applicants will be reviewed by the CO team, who are on the lookout for innovative sustainability solutions to promote to fashion industry buyers. 
  • Shortlisted applicants will be reviewed by PDS investment professionals, and gain dedicated promotion across all CO channels and to our 50k industry member base. 
  • From the shortlist, a selection of businesses will be given the opportunity to pitch, and the chance to gain investment or other support from PDS Venture Tech. 

Judging criteria

Judges will be looking for the following:

Innovation led business models

  • Are you leveraging emerging technologies to create environment-friendly products or services?
  • Do you have a unique value proposition that has game-changing advantages over any alternatives?
  • Is your business model commercially viable and economically desirable? 

Scalability 

  • Do you not only address a need and solve a problem but also seize an opportunity and create a new market or industry?
  • Do you target a large addressable market or the potential to add value through multiple use cases across industries?
  • What is your immediate and longer-term impact on people and the planet?

Application process

To finish your application, please complete the following 2 steps:

Applications can only be considered if both steps have been completed by the deadline: 30th June 2022.


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