ⓘ Featured image: Co-founders of Lemonade Fashion: Arthur Bizdikian (L) and Dana Malaeb
Lemonade Fashion, an online marketplace for made-to-order designers apparel, received pre-seed investment from Draper University Ventures in San Francisco. The company has its offices established in Lebanon, Armenia and Delaware, US.
The investment will enhance the development of the platform, fine-tune the operations, and support a greater number of designers from around the world.
In October 2019, Arthur Bizdikian, Co-founder and CEO of Lemonade Fashion – attended the Draper University Signature “Hero Training” in Silicon Valley which led to investment from Draper University Ventures.
Commenting on the investment round, Asra Nadeem, investor at Draper University Ventures in a statement said,
“Investing in Arthur was an easy decision. His work ethic, understanding of the market, and ability to build a solid team gave us all the confidence we needed to say yes”
Today, while COVID-19 has impacted the global fashion scene and plummeted sales, Lemonade Fashion sees this as an opportunity. The fashion industry is already suffering due to mass productions and high returns with over 210 billion USD yearly lost. The ‘new normal’ has implied many changes in consumer behaviours and demands – and that has affected the industry even more.
Sharing his view of the fashion domain, Bizdikian said,
“Fashion will see some dramatic changes in a post-COVID-19 era, and the part of online shopping will increase rapidly. This will require solid platforms and technologies, but also a bigger understanding of the new market shift. In this new world, trust will play a great factor; clients want to know who made their clothes, if they will fit them and if they have ever been worn before. Sustainability, quality, and price will greatly influence consumer behaviour. Designers and brands will need to adapt, and as Lemonade Fashion, we are positioned to drive this change”
The platform allows clients to shop a wide variety of designer outfits, customize them, and have them made-to-order to fit them perfectly, all from the comfort of their home. This is the company’s vision of the future of fashion, aiming for made-to-order apparel in a zero-waste world.
Lemonade Fashion creates and leverages new technologies to unlock the potential of selected designer brands by enabling them to connect globally to customers who need to feel unique through custom-made outfits. Designers are looking for moving their businesses online and as a curated marketplace, Lemonade Fashion is now home to over 50 designers and growing. On similar lines, Dana Malaeb, Co-Founder & Creative Director at Lemonade Fashion, said,
“We are always looking for the best designers. We look at their creations, quality of finishing, price, and sustainability of their brand”
Nadim Chammas, Head of Strategy and Partner at Lemonade Fashion, who possesses over 30 years of experience as an international fashion executive, said,
“More than ever, customers want to feel unique in their clothes while engaging with transparent, ethical and meaningful brands or retailers; this is what Lemonade fashion stands for”
The platform’s success would not have been possible without the passionate team and communities spread over different parts of the globe – essentially in San Francisco, Yerevan & Beirut. Early-on investors have believed in the business from start, as a necessary shift and solution to the problems of the fashion industry, and will continue to support strongly in this post-COVID-19 scenario.
Sami Abou Saab, CEO of Speed Accelerator who has empowered the company since early 2019. Arthur’s trip to San Francisco would not have been possible without the support of Speed in partnership with Lebnet.
“Every industry is prone to technological disruption and fashion is definitely not the exception. Lemonade Fashion is tackling a much-needed innovation in getting consumers the best designer clothes, at the most affordable prices, and from the luxury of their homes. They have built a solid team with top expertise in the space, with the ability to execute on the solution they are providing, while remaining lean and nimble to adjust to the ever-changing world and customer needs,”
Bizdikian further added,
“We owe a great debt of gratitude to Sami at Speed and Georges Akiki, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Lebnet, they have gone above and beyond in their ongoing support.”
At present, Lemonade Fashion is growing their technical department in Yerevan, led by Mohamad Ali Baydoun, Co-Founder & CTO along with Arevik Vardanyan, the local director of the company.
Speaking of the development in Armenia, Ali Baydoun commented,
“We’re building a strong development team based in Armenia, and our primary focus in parallel with satisfying business requirements is technical excellence. There is a lot of variance among designers, and our designer count roughly doubles every 4-6 months. Attention to detail, rigorous quality control, and careful planning are paramount to our success”
