And just like that, the first cohort of the Startup Program inside our fashion tech lab, Foundry Powered by IFA Paris, has already come to a close. The first batch of founders and entrepreneurs have paved the way for the second batch, whom commenced their entrepreneurial journey with us at the end of September. This next cohort is comprised of 100% international founders, from all over the world including Vietnam, Turkey, Canada and USA. This is truly exciting for us as it shows that fashion tech founders need a home and they’re coming to IFA Paris to realise their ambition. Cohort 2 consists of:
- FAME, South Africa, an interactive fashion content communicator.
- Krippit, Canada, 3D printed fashion accessories.
- Lana, peer-to-peer wardrobe renting app.
- LaunchMart, Vietnam, a fashion design platform.
- MallHop, USA, a fashion search engine & retail platform.
- Revivl, Lebanon, an upcycling platform.
- Roundrack, Israel, a circular fashion concierge.
- T Fashion, Turkey, AI-powered trend forecasting platform.
- [Startup name pending], Lebanon, a virtual fitting room platform.
The founders in cohort 2 represent a variety of backgrounds and experience such as science, computing and advertising, which makes an interesting mix of perspectives as they commence their masterclass workshops. The startup ideas themselves are a true representation of where the fashion industry should be heading. They are tackling issues such as sustainability which Roundrack, Revivl and Lana are all solving over-production and over-consumption issues in their own way. Other startups are tapping into big data and artificial intelligence to power their platforms such as T Fashion and MallHop. Given time and expert guidance from our experts in the Startup Program, we can’t wait to see how they grow over the next 6 months.
You can come and visit us in a lab tour or meet the startups in person. For more information visit the Foundry website: www.foundryftlab.com