Chair Capital signs Memorandum of Understanding with Quifactum

Chair Capital has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Quifactum BV, a Belgium-based software company building Digital Product Passport infrastructure for the EU textile and furniture markets. The MOU establishes a structured funding pathway of up to £15M, alongside up to €4M of interim capital, to support the company as it scales ahead of the EU's incoming textile compliance requirements.

A market shaped by regulation

The European Union's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is reshaping how the textile industry handles product data. The delegated acts setting the textile requirements are expected in the first quarter of 2027, followed by a transition period of at least 18 months before Digital Product Passports become mandatory and garments without them can no longer be placed on the EU market.

This creates a substantial and time-bound opportunity. Quifactum estimates the combined compliance and value-creation opportunity across textiles and furniture at approximately €79 billion by 2030, covering around 90,000 EU garment companies and 130,000 EU furniture companies. Because Digital Product Passport records must remain accessible for years under ESPR, early platform selection is expected to be durable, favouring proven providers as the market consolidates.

Why Quifactum

Quifactum has built a functioning SaaS platform that creates item-level Digital Product Passports, an approach that goes beyond competitors addressing only model or SKU-level compliance. The platform combines API integrations, AI-assisted data extraction and self-service workflows to simplify Digital Product Passport creation for small and medium enterprises, the segment that makes up the majority of the EU textile sector and that most providers overlook.

The company already serves paying enterprise customers, including Belgian childrenswear brand Filou & Friends. Their chief executive, Rudi Maes, said:

"Our collaboration with Quifactum has enabled us to move beyond regulatory preparation and build a practical foundation for transparency and circularity. Today, more than 600,000 Digital Product Passports have been integrated into our products, and we continue to explore new applications together, including take-back and circular business models."

Quifactum also operates at the EU standardisation level through membership of JTC-24 and the CIRPASS2 project, placing it close to the bodies defining how Digital Product Passports will work in practice.

How the engagement is structured

The MOU sets out Chair Capital's Investment Architecture for the engagement: capital deployed in tranches against defined value-creation milestones. These milestones span product validation, with production-grade connectors live to enterprise ERP, PLM and PIM platforms; commercial traction, measured against contracted annual recurring revenue and validated unit economics; independent third-party technical review and ISO 27001 or SOC 2 Type II certification; and governance enhancements including the appointment of a chief financial officer and an independent non-executive director. Interim funding of up to €4M, including a €1M seed round, runs in parallel to maintain the commercial pipeline and milestone schedule.

Stuart Livingstone, Chief Operating Officer at Chair Capital, said:

"Quifactum sits at the intersection of regulatory compliance and AI technologies, one of Chair Capital's core focus areas, and addresses a market where a firm regulatory deadline is driving adoption across the sector. Our Investment Architecture is designed for precisely this profile: a company with genuine commercial traction that requires institutional-grade financial structure and governance to scale into a fixed regulatory window. By structuring capital against clear value-creation milestones and providing interim funding in parallel, we give Quifactum a credible pathway to institutional readiness ahead of the EU's incoming compliance requirements. We look forward to supporting the team as a cornerstone investor."

Mathias Slabbinck, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Quifactum, added:

"The ESPR mandate is reshaping how the textile industry handles product data, and we have spent years building a platform ready for that shift. Chair Capital's commitment validates the opportunity and brings the financial architecture, governance support and co-investor network we need to scale. The milestone framework reflects exactly where we must develop, from enterprise integrations and certification through to strengthening our leadership team. With signed enterprise customers already in place and the compliance deadline approaching, this is the right moment to move toward institutional investment."

About Chair Capital

Chair Capital is a specialist investment firm operating across energy transition, data infrastructure, and AI technologies. The firm deploys principal capital alongside a structured advisory engagement, combining capital with operational expertise to prepare high-potential companies for institutional investment and scale. Through its Investment Architecture, Chair Capital structures milestone-based funding designed to de-risk capital deployment and attract co-investors.

About Quifactum

Quifactum BV is a Belgium-based software company providing Digital Product Passport infrastructure for the EU textile and furniture markets. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Brugge, Quifactum operates a SaaS platform that creates item-level Digital Product Passports in line with the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. The company is a member of the EU standardisation bodies defining Digital Product Passport standards, including JTC-24 and the CIRPASS2 project, and serves both self-service SME customers and enterprise brands requiring high-volume, integrated compliance.