Egyptian Fashion Startup Opio Looks to GCC for Expansion After Raising $300K Investment

Egyptian direct-to-consumer fashion brand, Opio, has announced that it has raised a $300K investment from AUC Angels, alongside local and regional angel investors, along with follow-on funding from Flat6labs Cairo. 

Hoping to establish a foothold in the GCC with the funding, Opio was launched in 2017 as a digitally native vertical that hoped to rekindle the Egyptian apparel industry. The startup commissions white label and toll manufacturing womenswear to a range of different manufacturers, offering them at competitive prices through its online platform, which has seen a surge in use during the pandemic.

Looking to simplify shopping and even its own processes, Opio  distributes its products with no middlemen, enabling them to reduce costs, interact with consumers directly and manage the start-to-finish buyer experience with minimal hassle. 

For co-founders, Shady Mokhtar and Reem Abdellatif, their approach to fashion and e-commerce is built on two things: firstly, filling the gaps in the fashion and clothes manufacturing industry as a whole “What I see in this market is a huge supply-demand imbalance,” said Mokhtar, who also serves as Opio’s CEO. “Egypt has thousands of manufacturers with exceptional manufacturing capabilities yet, a total lack of modern-day customers requirements, up to date fashion trends and marketing know-how.” 

The second is championing local talent, which Abdellatif - the creative director - believes Egypt has plenty of. “Egypt is full of design and creative talent,” she says. “We’ve proven that we can develop a value proposition that can easily compete with international brands. Backing this up by a relentless focus on customer experience we are confident that we can easily add a strong mark on the local and regional online fashion market.”

Learn more about Opio here.