Tunisian Peer-to-Peer Fashion Marketplace Dabchy Raises $300,000 in Seed Round
The platform will use the funds to fulfill their expansion efforts and enhance their infrastructure, as well as their regional footprint to MENA-based countries.
Dabchy, a Tunis-based peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion marketplace has raised $300,000 in a seed round led by 500 Startups and joined by Flat6Labs, Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Khobar-based Vision Ventures and Daal, and a group of angel investors.
Established in 2016 by Amani Mansouri, Oussama Mahjoub and Ghazi Ketata, Dabchy is an online platform that facilitates its users to sell both pre-used and new clothes at a discounted rate. The application, which recently hit 100,000 downloads on Android, has a community of over 400,000 users in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria who use its web and mobile-based applications to purchase and sell pre-owned, self-made, or new and unused clothes and accessories for women and kids. The startup aims to use the funds to aid and augment its infrastructure, expand its team and regional footprint to MENA countries
“With this investment, Dabchy will accelerate its investment in product development, expand its team and regional footprint, and scale our platform to continue to make it easier for our users to buy and sell,“ says Amani Mansouri, CEO of Dabchy, who has been lately featured in Forbes Middle East’s 30 under 30 list in 2019.
“At Dabchy, we operate as a trusted third-party between buyers and sellers and have facilitated more than 100,000 transactions to-date. Our ambition is to become the number one fashion marketplace in the region and to empower a new generation of women to become microentrepreneurs by creating their own businesses online and to take a lead role in sustainability,“ adds Mansouri.
In 2017, Dabchy joined the first acceleration cycle of Flat6labs, Tunis. Following the program, the company also launched Dabchy Kids that year. In 2018, Dabchy.com was listed among the first 100 top African and Arab promising startups by IFC- International Finance Corporation and the World Economic Forum.
Dabchy has already begun celebrating its achievements as a leading product. In 2019, Dabchy was the one of the first Tunisian and African startup to join the European Fashion Tech Incubator, ‘Look forward’ by Showroomprivé in Paris. The company also participated in the second cohort of Womentum, a women-in-tech accelerator by Womena in partnership with Standard Chartered.
“We're pleased to back the team behind Dabchy and make this our first investment into the Tunisian market. What the team have managed to achieve so far has been amazing, and we look forward to Dabchy continuing to lead the way for used fashion online in North Africa. There is a significant market need and demand for the product, and that has already been demonstrated by their traction so far," says Hasan Haider, Managing Partner at 500 Startups.
For the three venture capitalist firms, 500 Startups, Vision VC and Daal VC, Dabchy is their first investment in a Tunisian startup.
“We’ve been eyeing the North African market beyond Egypt specifically Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. This market is starting to boom and the community is your and tech savvy. Dabchy’s business model proved to be needed in the market with a limited investment, we expect it will dominate soon with further investment especially in the leadership of the talented Amani Mansouri”, says Kais Al-Essa, CEO and Founding Partner of Vision Venture.
