Berytech organized a Pitching and showcasing event for the 11 startups who are part of the STAND Up! Growing Innovation Program. Four startups were selected to receive additional business and financial support to become more competitive and seize business opportunities in the Mediterranean.
Berytech is a partner of STAND Up! Sustainable Textile Action for Networking and Development of circular economy business ventures in the Mediterranean, an EU-funded project under the ENI CBC Med programme in 5 participating countries: Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, and Tunisia.
The winners
Out of the 131 applicants to the program, 22 projects were selected to join the program and were then narrowed down to 11 to pitch their ideas in front of a pool of jury members and more than 110 attendees. The four finalists selected are:
- LvPxAlSama is an upcycling and embroidery service that supports female artisans in Lebanon with regular and fair employment. The collaborative process is designed to educate the customer about the worth of fine hand-embroidery and provides the artisans with access to broader markets.
- La Boutique Sociale is designing a solution to be able to shift from a traditional linear economy through keeping resources in use for as long as possible, recover and reuse materials by collecting and upcycling secondhand clothing as well as recycling fabrics. To encourage and ensure living in a sustainable environment, La Boutique will be providing awareness sessions about clothing and textile waste reduction, designing and producing clothes of higher quality, and helping shift the perception of clothing from being a disposable item to being a durable product.
- Sisters for the World is designing washable, affordable, leak-proof underwear made out of healthy, naturally absorbent, and eco-friendly material. The desired product is meant to replace expensive single-use and non-biodegradable menstrual pads, thereby helping end period poverty. The underwear can additionally be used by both men and women for all kinds of leaks, such as those caused by incontinence or postpartum bleeding, etc.
- Lebamoz produces natural fibers and fabrics from banana pseudostems with a very low carbon footprint. Partnering with Lebanese banana farmers and loom operators to collect and process banana fibers, these will be spun into yarn and then either sold as they are or woven into fabric.
LvPxAlSama and Sisters for the World won the people choice award based on the online votes of the 110 attendees.
Pitching Ventures
The jury included Carla Saba – Deputy GM at Berytech, Fabio Montagnino – Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office at the Cyprus Institute, Jalal Moghraby – Instructor at the School of Architecture and Design LAU, Gabriel Warde – Chief Operating Officer at Warde, Constantin Salameh, Senior Coach and Investment Advisor at Berytech and Anna Ibanez – Project Manager at SCP/RAC.
The jury focused on the economic viability of the projects, the environmental and social value, and the entrepreneurial and professional experience of the team. The pitching teams included:
- Al Aman, a project that aims to up-cycle the personal protective equipment of the medical front-liners and to turn them into a collection of useful sustainable fashion accessories such as practical bags.
- Naked, a startup working to provide 100% natural organic hemp fabric, made from the fiber waste of hemp plants, to be manufactured into a breathable, healthy, and eco-conscious clothing brand.
- Klovr, a peer-to-peer marketplace for circular fashion where buying and selling sustainable clothes has been made easy and reliable.
- Morph, provides a multifunctional product in one garment, which eliminates the need to produce several products separately as they are all combined in one, all while including the concept of upcycling, hence reducing fabric waste.
- tiaChriS, an interactive virtual fashion house that aims to sell online ethically made fashionable items to implement social change through an immersive virtual experience that will educate the consumer about sustainable living and spread awareness on the consequences of fast fashion.
- Goodkill, a fashion brand that aims to make an example and create a line of furniture, including cushions and sound isolation products from left-over raw textile materials in Lebanon, breaking the waste stream and creating truly sustainable products and brands.
- Lebanese Klakeesh, a project that recycles textile gadgets transforming them into unique, handmade, customizable gifts.
The Project
The four winning teams will be part of the 20 early and growth-stage ventures supported to provide fair employment opportunities and reduce the environmental footprint in the Mediterranean region, thus facilitating the transition of the region towards SCP in the textile and clothing industry and reinforcing the regional community of change-makers and innovators advancing cross-border integration, aggregating the textile and clothing value chain of the area.
About the STAND Up! Project
The STAND Up! project aims to enhance scalable, replicable, and inclusive circular economy ventures in the Mediterranean by developing an ecosystem of business support, innovation, and technology transfer that will lead to sustainable job creation for youth and women. Learn more about the STAND Up! project.
Activity period 30 months (July 2020 – December 2022)
Total budget: Euro 3.693.986,68
EU contribution: Euro 3.324.588,68 (90% of the total budget)
Main source of funding: European Union (ENI CBC Med Programme)
