Mewa takes over 20% stake in AI textile inspector Desion
What's the deal? German textile-service provider MewaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired a stake of more than 20% in DesionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Darmstadt-based startup that builds AI-powered quality-control systems for the textile and laundry industry. The move formalises a partnership that has run since Desion was founded.
What's the background? Desion launched in 2020 as a spin-off of TU Darmstadt and the Fraunhofer Institute. Mewa has backed it as an industry partner from the start, jointly developing a patented AI inspection system for high-visibility clothing that reached the top-10 list in the "optical technology" category of the German Industry Prize in 2017.
How does it work? Desion's technology combines computer vision, control systems, and AI. After washing and drying, cameras capture images of cleaning cloths from several angles; software then analyses category, quality, and defect types, and routes each cloth to be delivered, rewashed, or discarded.
Why now? The latest project applies that system to Mewa's reusable cleaning cloths, adding camera support to inspections previously done visually and by machine. In the first five months, more than 70 million cloths were checked. Mewa washes roughly 1.2 billion cloths a year for B2B customers in industry, automotive, and printing.
What's the endgame? "With this stake, we are laying the foundation for the textile service of tomorrow," said Björn Scheel, chief operating officer of the Mewa Group. He added that scalable AI helps make processes more efficient and target resources more precisely.
For Desion, the deal secures a long-term industrial partner. "With Mewa, we have a strong and forward-looking partner at our side, with whom we can develop our technologies in a practical way," said Dirk Siegmund, managing partner of Desion.
The signal: The stake shows how established service firms are moving from customer relationships to ownership positions in the startups supplying their automation. For Mewa, it locks in access to AI capability; for Desion, it turns years of collaboration into capital and validation.
Read more: Firmenpresse
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
