Dabchy is re-shaping the mindset around second-hand fashion by connecting a growing regional community on their innovative social networking platform.

“Dabchy is a Tunisian word meaning ‘my stuff, my clothing,’” says Ameni Mansouri, a fashion lover-turned-entrepreneur who launched a Facebook group three years ago for women to buy and sell clothes and accessories.

In 2016, she was inspired to transform this into a startup that has since gained significant traction. Dabchy is now a regional social network with a growing community and a fashion marketplace where women can buy and sell their pre-loved clothing.

Dabchy, a startup from Womentum 2019, a women in tech accelerator by womena® in partnership with Standard Chartered, operates as a trusted third-party platform between buyers and sellers.

Their catalog of products has doubled over the past six months with more than 320,000 items now listed on their website.

A multi-billion dollar industry, the global resale market is estimated to grow to $51 billion in the next five years and predicted to overtake the fast fashion market in a decade.

Born and raised in Tunisia, Ameni lived in the fashion capital, Paris, for 10 years and as a fashion lover, she ended up with a lot of clothes, some of which were brand new. This is how she got into apps and websites where she could buy and sell her second-hand clothes.

When she went back home to Tunisia, she discovered that the mindset around second-hand fashion was changing, but there was no secure platform to support this trend.

After pitching the idea to her now co-founder, Ghazi Ketata, who owned a fintech startup at the time, they were able to launch the first version of Dabchy just four days later thanks to his previous experience in tech.

Within their first year, Dabchy gained 200,000 subscribers on the website, and they launched an app just six months later.

A hybrid between a social network and an e-commerce platform, the app operates across Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria today with 400,000 registered users.

The community-driven network allows users to create a profile where they can share not only their products but their personal style, while unlocking different levels that give them access to more advantages on the platform.

“The sharing economy mindset is really booming in the region so people are more comfortable with the idea of selling and buying pre-loved items,” says Ameni. “Sometimes, it’s an item that they bought but they never wore. They can mention that it’s new so people can find new items on the platform as well.”

The startup has been recording 20 percent growth in revenue month-on-month through the commission per transaction basis of their platform – further affirming the evolution of social media and people’s trust in services such as Dabchy where they can purchase almost anything from the comfort of their homes.

With plans to scale their product to the expansive market of Egypt, they hope to eventually expand to the rest of the MENA region. In the coming year, Dabchy aims to direct efforts and funds towards enhancing the overall user experience, grow its team, and tackle the issues within the delivery system of the region by improving the process of working with third-party delivery services.

After being friends for years, the founders recently announced their engagement a few months ago. “Like any co-founders, we have good moments, we have bad too. We’re trying to separate as we can between our personal life and our professional life.”

Set in the innovative ecosystem of Berlin and the bustling investment hub of Dubai, Season 2 of Womentum follows the journey of entrepreneurs from the eight top female-led tech startups as they go through a four-month accelerator. Join us as we dive deeper into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and the challenges they face as they build and grow their businesses. Check out Season 1 of the series!

Read more #WomentumStartup profiles: FreshSource, Luxury Promise, MakerBrane