CUTTING EDGE: Paris-based start-up Alphalyr scooped up the 2026 ANDAM Innovation Award.

Launched in 2023, the data analytics company is betting on artificial intelligence to help the fashion industry produce right, sell better, waste less and understand consumers’ complete journey. According to its website, its clients include the likes of Ami Paris, Balmain, Galeries Lafayette and the SMCP group.

“We discovered a real maturity and diversity in the offering of new materials, with an increasingly sharp consideration of ecological challenges, particularly water and carbon consumption,” said Yann Gozlan, founder and president of Creative Valley, a Paris-based start-up accelerator that is a member of ANDAM’s expert committee.

“In parallel, we also saw, in a very concrete and operational way, the improvement that AI brings to the value chain, whether in operational efficiency or in the co-development of the creative approach,” continued Gozlan, who serves as this year’s mentor.

Alphalyr is planning to use the grant of 100,000 euros and the ANDAM’s networking opportunities to burnish its solutions and “accelerate the AI transformation of brands and retailers for greater resilience, agility and sustainability,” said the winner’s co-president Bertrand Fredenucci.

For the second time, the ANDAM Innovation Award awarded a Special Prize, scooped up by biobased dye and pigment producer Pili, based in the southwestern French city of Toulouse.

Although only two walked away with gongs, the expert committee is tipping its hat to the year’s 10 other finalists, who are invited free of charge to present their technology during the Inno-Tech edition of the Première Vision trade show, running Sep. 1 to 3.

“By connecting research, design, and major fashion houses, the prize has established itself as a true accelerator of more responsible fashion,” said Nathalie Dufour, the founder of ANDAM. “Beyond the podium, it is an entire ecosystem of innovators that ANDAM brings to the fore, year after year.”

Meanwhile, this year’s finalists of the ANDAM Fashion Awards will be revealed in early June before they run the gantlet of the 2026 jury headed by former winner Alexandre Mattiussi, founder and creative director of Ami Paris.