About

Swaplanet was founded in March 2021 by Sherif Barakat, Jimmy Nicolaides, & Helena Stamou, based on a problem Sherif was facing with his two children, that nobody was solving: 1. Kids grow fast but their clothes don't. Parents need to spend hundreds of euros every year on new clothes, toys, and books that are barely used. 2. Outgrown items are worth hundreds/thousands of euros, but this value is lost for parents. They have no easy way to recover it, so they either store it or donate it, losing its value and creating clutter. 3. Due to overproduction and waste, the textile sector causes a massive negative impact to our planet. At any moment, there is enough clothing in shops and homes for 6 generations. As a result of this overproduction, the textile sector is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions, 20% of water usage, and 70-80% of production ends up in landfills.

Solution & Product

We make it easy for busy parents to solve the above: 1. Parents prepare a package with everything their kids have outgrown (we pick it up from their doorstep). 2. We inspect and pay in store credit for everything that can be re-used. 3. Accepted items are photographed and uploaded to our website so other parents can buy them. 4. Parents use their store credit to shop for what they need, saving up to 90% compared to new. 5. Repeat the cycle. Thanks to the above, parents can: - Easily declutter their homes and earn back some of what they spent. - Renew their kids’ wardrobes, buying their favourite brands at very economical prices. - Reduce their carbon and water footprints by extending the life of the clothing out there.

Innovation & Scalability

The combination of the below is our “secret sauce”. 1. Low prices: because we source from parents and pay in store credit, we can offer this clothing to other parents at extremely attractive prices. 2. Wide assortment: we have over 40,000 unique items across more than 4,000 brands and 25 categories, meaning parents can always find what they're looking for. 3. Renewal: parents send us clothing every day, creating a constant renewal of inventory, so there's always something new. Supporting this: 1. Network effect: as more parents join the platform, inventory gets richer and word-of-mouth spreads further. 2. Operations expertise: efficiently processing thousands of items per day requires deep operations expertise that improves over time. 3. Pricing expertise: we have become experts at pricing second-hand items so they are attractive and accessible while supporting our unit economics.

Traction & achievements

As of Feb 2024: €270,000+ revenue 3,200+ paying customers of which over 50% are repeat customers 17,000+ social media followers 200,000+ items received 100,000+ articles uploaded to site €250,000+ inventory value

Team & Why Us

We are a diverse and international team, with a complementary set of skills and a crazy dedication to our mission. We’ve lived in 10 countries between us, and speak 6 languages. We are mature, and have worked in all sorts of organizations, large and small. We have great chemistry. We are humble and open to input from others. We think long-term, about the best interests of all stakeholders. Co-founders: - Sherif Barakat, CEO/CFO, 10 years experience in private equity/finance, 5 years in engineering. Lived and worked in Canada, UK, France, Egypt, Morocco, and Germany. She has 2 kids and is living the problem on a daily basis. - Jimmy Nicolaides, CPO, Engineer, Inventor, 10 years in both product development and business development. Previous startup experience in Greece & Dubai. Jimmy has 1 kid. - Helena Stamou, CMO, 20 years experience in marketing & PR. As of October 2023, Helena is no longer part of the management team.

Funding Needs

€2m round expected in mid/late 2025 to fund expansion to France.