STAND Up! has selected in Egypt the 4 textile and fashion start-ups that will receive the services from soft-landing vouchers, after the evaluation done by the local partner Sekem Development Foundation. The selected green ventures are all led by women almost all under the age of 35: Sara Saad (Zakeia), Mai Hossam Shaltoutt (Darjee), Somaia Abolezz (Somaia Abolezz) and Khadiga Hossameldin (Dija Mo).

The early and growth-stage entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to access the STAND Up! soft-landing voucher schemes, a transnational mobility scheme providing their eco-sustainable and circular enterprises with the possibility to access markets in the Mediterranean region.

Within the activity, they will receive 4 vouchers valued up to 4,000€ each, which will give them the chance to explore new business and networking opportunities to connect with local industry players. Besides, they will have the chance to meet stakeholders from the region and participate in events and trade fairs.

• Zakeia: high quality slow fashion brand using haute couture dead-stock high quality fabric to create limited edition pieces. Currently only engaged in the production of women's clothing, the start-up as a slow fashion brand, they do not aim to create more pieces per article, but the same garments in different fabrics and to expand their production into children's wear, loungewear, pyjamas, men's wear, home and accessories, etc.
• Darjee: Darjee produces customised clothes on demand, while ensuring high quality and offering a mix of convenience, speed, quality and customisation. The startup's aim is to harness the power of technology in fashion by developing an interactive website where it’s possible to perform all the steps of creating a dress online. From a social point of view, the start-up is also committed to set a role model of being a profitable business and responsible at the same.
• Somaia Abolezz: Somaia Abolezz is a young female entrepreneur under 30 years old. Her brand deals with wearable artistic fashion, using organic fabrics. In its mission, Somaia sees art as capable of improving mental health and sharing everyday products that can bring happiness and well-being.
• Dija Mo: It draws inspiration from the Egyptian culture translating it in trendy and eco-friendly designs by adopting slow fashion concept. They use all the leftovers from the manufacturing to make new textiles and recycle them in new designs. The brand presents Egyptian heritage in a trendy and modern way. It also uses eco-friendly materials as well as zero-waste techniques.

The soft-landing voucher schemes will cover flight expenses, material expenses - such as digital services to help ventures boost their visibility or marketing strategy-, per diem expenses covering food, accommodation and transportation and concierge expenses hosting organization’s expertise to support ventures’ growth and conference attendance.

More about the soft-landing voucher scheme opportunity

The selected entrepreneurs will be able to choose the territory where to implement the soft-landing activity and access the local market with their business. The eligible territories where the soft-landing activity should be applied are located in the ENI CBC Med cooperation area.

This activity aims at accelerating job creation and stimulate connection between Southern and Northern Mediterranean through the selection of 20 ventures in total in the 5 project partners, which are: Egypt, Italy, Lebanon, Spain and Tunisia.

STAND Up! is an EU-funded project under the ENI CBC Med Programme which intends to support textile entrepreneurs and eco-innovative ventures in the Mediterranean and help them seize business opportunities that the green evolution will generate.