AGARUW

Agaruw is an online marketplace dedicated for eco-friendly products created by designers and a brand where we recycle and upcycle textile and solid waste into fashion and decor items.

We decided to take a step into making a valuable change by starting AGARUW, introducing environment-friendly alternatives! 

In fact, It's working on 3 main parts :

-An online marketplace that promotes handmade, recycled, and eco-friendly products made by local artists and artisans (Check our website: www.agaruw.com)
-Our own brand AGARUW where we recycle and upcycle fabrics, old clothes collected, plastic, leather, wood, crystal, and many other materials to create fashionable items using technology (CNC, laser engraving, 3D printing..)..
-We will mainly encourage recycling and empower marginalized and jobless women: It's a Lab that has some basic machines and Equipment (laptops, sewing machines, 3D-printer, CNC machine, laser engraving machine, raw materials...) where we will train women and marginalized people on handcrafting skills and help them create their own recycled products
that will be sold through our platform and network allowing them to have their own small machines and raw material to start their small businesses. 

AGARUW introducing the solutions to make waste circular!

Our idea is tackling the over-consuming and highly destructive fast-fashion because the continuous accumulation of cheap garments is only possible because of a constant reduction of production costs.

10% of the carbon world emission comes from the apparel industry, the equivalent of one garbage track is of textile waste every second, water pollution, and overuse. This, in turn, has serious consequences on our health, our planet, and garment workers’ lives. The fashion industry is the 2nd most polluting industry after oil and gas, along with the huge amount of solid waste and pollution that our planet is suffering from. In addition, small artists and artisans are vanishing and their creations are diluted in the highly competitive society

Our local target market is estimated to be at least 6,5 million users aged between 14 and 60 years old (Source: L'Institut national de la Statistique) including artisans and 208 465 people with special needs with 50.7% having physical disabilities.
Globally, the market is very promising especially with the climate change and epidemic crisis in addition to the disabled community is estimated to 1 billion people at least.

We are loyal to our approach to sustainability! we are the first platform in our country Tunisia dedicated to eco-friendly products and green artisans!
We allow everyone to be a designer through our customization online process where customers can make their design imaginations come true!
We provide jobless and with special needs people to learn fashion skills thanks to an online learning approach and access to the needed raw materials to start their own small businesses!

We engage artisans to produce sustainable and high-quality pieces and offer the user an easy online process of customization to design their pieces and maintain more time wearing them and repurposing them.

Our project has a significant environmental but also a social impact through empowering artisans, women, and marginalized people to create their own recycled and upcycled products and help them have constant incomes with fair wages and work hours, and good work environment. We are working side by side with NGOs in Tunisia to measure our impact and the founding team has great experience in direct communication and work with designs and artisans. The past year has proved the huge potential of our users and the engagement that we created with them in our loop of the circular economy.

-Until now we partnered with NGOs in our country and we achieved an amount of recycled waste of 6 tons of solid waste in 6 months, we planted more than 1000 trees in different regions and we raised awareness about climate change and the threats provided by the textiles industry. We also trained +20 women in rural places and engaged them in the loop of our
circular economy. Agaruw is introducing the new eco-friendly alternatives created by passionate and active founders and artisans community. 

In 2021: -We launched the marketplace in Tunisia ( www.agaruw.com)/ -small lab in Tunisia / -+25 artisans onboard  / - +18 k of revenues / +250 user

We are part of very amazing programs such as the only north African and Tunisian startup selected by Africa climaccelarator 1st pan program between 15 most climate impactful ventures. Tony elumulu foundation / Afkar incubator / WYF / EIB / Stand up / Restart program ...

Our solutions include technologies at many levels in production, communication, selection ...: 

-AI ( software detect materials to select the sustainable products from the designers )

- Blockchain 

-3D printing ( using collected and recycled plastic to create new products)

-Biodegradable materials 

-Marketplace and e-commerce tools

-Current customers using Agaruw: 350 users in Tunisia / 35 Designer and artisan  / 25 coached women 

-Expected customers next year: 1500 users / 150 Designer and artisan / 100 coached women

In 2022:
-We will launch our mobile app
-+ 150 artisans onboard
- 60 k in revenues
-Bigger lab 

-100 trained women 

-20 tons of recycled and upcycled textile and solid waste
-Expand to MENA region

-Number of coached women 

-Number of created jobs and constant incomes

- Liters of water saved 
-CO2 emission reduction from the textile industry 
-Amount of solid and textile waste reduced
-Deforestation reduction

To achieve our goals by the next year and make the impact that we want to see to drive us as a community to change habits: We need to amplify our team members and skills by recruiting. We need financial support and a clear marketing strategy and anticipate the delay from the artisans that is one of the risks and we plan to deal with it as we maintain powerful communication and logistics and also through the online easy process to enhance the user experience and avoid any delays in delivering the products.

We are a multi-disciplinary team from engineering to marketing to fashion!
We are part of many international networks and NGOs such as the Obama Foundation, TEF, UN, TTU, MIT Tech Review, Forbes, Africa climaccelarator and we can get exposure and support in addition to yours to scale faster and bigger. 

Mejda Khaled as CEO and Co-founder:  She textile engineer and product designer with more than 6 years of experience in direct contact with designers and artisans and years in upcycling. 

Zeineb Ben Abdallah: Chief production manager: She is an Artisan and dressmaker with more than 40 years working in the fashion industry 

Hana Ben Slimane: Digital marketing strategy manager

Mohamed Dhaouafi: Cofounder he is an electrical engineer and holding a master degree in management of NGOs and he is a serial entrepreneur and Forbes 30 under 30 and MIT review alumni 

Khouloud Slimen: Community manager 

Chiraz Jedid: Blog and content creator 

We are currently collaborating with many organizations and NGOs in order to have a bigger environmental, social, and economic impact 

-Carbon Trust 

-Growth Africa 

-GIZ /BMI

-Tunisia recycling 

-Tounes clean up 

-Moodhaokhra / Pontalon 

-C-kic Africa

This prize will allow us to focus on bigger implementation projects with NGOs to coach and train women in rural places and expand that activity. 

This prize may be a source of changing the lives of women and providing them with constant incomes to support themselves and their families.

Working along with people with special needs, women, and jobless people and maintaining the rights of fashion workers is our bigger social impact and we need your support to execute and get the most out of this journey.