PRESS RELEASE
Milan, June 6, 2024. YHub, a leading Group in solutions and technologies for traceability and sustainable transition in the fashion and luxury industry -including Process Factory with its proprietary framework 4sustainability®, The ID Factory and Ympact- is proud to announce the achievement of an important milestone in its journey: the entry into the corporate structure of five new high-profile investors such as Foro delle Arti (Holding Company of Brunello Cucinelli SpA), the entrepreneur Matteo Marzotto, Claudio Rovere (Founder & CEO of Holding Industriale SpA), Venture Funds managed by LionTree, a global merchant bank, and Federico Marchetti (Chairman of The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force) through Mavis.
The YHub Group accompanies brands and companies in the fashion and luxury sectors in implementing sustainability and traceability projects aimed at measurably reducing the environmental and social impacts of production. The key is in the credibility of the information and therefore in the proposed system of collection, verification and validation of impact data to support sustainability reporting and the construction of digital product passports. YHub now has a team of 65 professionals, supports more than 3 thousand companies, works with more than 50 global brands and maps more than 80 thousand suppliers in 22 different countries.
New European regulations on eco-design, supply chain due diligence, extended producer responsibility, sustainability reporting, and digital passport increasingly require fashion and luxury companies to assess the environmental and social risks of their production chains and equip themselves with effective monitoring and reporting systems for transparency and definition of improvement actions. YHub supports this challenge by providing the expertise, method, and technologies essential to implement credible processes for collecting, verifying, and validating impact data.
The capital increase transaction aims to scale up the business model while strengthening the Group’s international vocation. Its uniqueness lies in the type of aggregation achieved, an authoritative and representative partnership of the best energies that the fashion and luxury sector is able to express today.
In the new corporate structure, the leadership of YHub remains firmly in the hands of founding partners Francesca Rulli, Massimo Brandellero and Cristian Iobbi. Matteo De Angelis is confirmed as the Group’s General Manager.
YHub’s founding partners Rulli, Brandellero and Iobbi commented on this important step as follows, “We have always envisioned a future in which industry, innovation and sustainability are integrated in the service of a momentous challenge. The path taken so far is undoubtedly satisfying, but we have even more ambitious plans. This is also why we are delighted and honored to welcome as new partners people and realities among the most prestigious in the industry: the wealth of knowledge, vision, experience and inspiration that everyone brings opens up great opportunities for us and provides the resources we can count on for innovation, the development of our methodologies and the growth of our business reality.”
Riccardo Stefanelli, CEO & Executive Board Member of Brunello Cucinelli Spa, stated the following: “We are very pleased to have reached such an agreement, which for us marks a further significant step along the path of what we at Solomeo like to call Human Sustainability. We do not view it as a mere investment, but rather as a true support for innovation in the field of traceability; we believe that manufacturing also and above all means taking responsibility for one’s products, how they are created, how they are processed, as well as the working conditions of those who make them. We fully believe in traceability as a tool for sustainability and, above all, as a noble means of cultivating the noble goal of improving precisely the working conditions of the entire production chain”.
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For the legal aspects related to the transaction, YHub was assisted by Zaglio-Orizio-Braga e Associati Studio Legale, with a team composed by partner Marco Orizio and associate Désirée Pasquariello. Studio Data and Equity Factory acted as financial advisors.
For legal aspects, the new partners were assisted by Gelmetti Studio Legale Associato, with a team composed by partner Pierfrancesco Gelmetti and senior associate Lorenzo Colletti.
Strategic due diligence was performed by OC&C, tax due diligence by Palumbo&Partners.
YHub is the first Italian holding company providing innovative services and digital platforms for the sustainable growth of the fashion system. It is an integrated hub of expertise, methodology, and technology created to support brands and supply chains in implementing traceability and impact reduction projects. YHub and its member businesses are all Benefit Companies: Process Factory, a consulting firm responsible for the 4sustainability® system aimed at improving sustainability performance; The ID Factory, a BCorp specializing in digital solutions for the traceability of materials, processes and products; and Ympact, a platform for impact data management and large-scale application of the 4sustainability system. The Holding, which now has a team of 65 professionals, supports more than 3,000 companies, works with more than 50 global brands and maps more than 80,000 suppliers in 22 different countries.