STAND Up! has selected 4 circular fashion start-ups in Lebanon to scale and move to the incubation phase. After the celebration of a pitching and showcasing event, which was organized by Berytech, 11 start-ups who are part of the STAND Up! Growing Innovation Program took the chance to present their projects to a board of jury members. Four start-ups were selected to receive additional business and financial support to become more competitive and seize business opportunities in the Mediterranean.

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.
• Sisters of 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.

The 4 winning ideas

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 sustainable consumption and production in the textile and clothing industry. STAND Up! will also reinforce the regional community of change-makers and innovators advancing cross-border integration, aggregating the textile and clothing value chain of the area.

The Jury Members

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.

About the 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.

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 Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC), who was in the pool of Jury Members, is the Lead Beneficiary of the project.