Krakow, Poland · Startup Answear.com is a Krakow-based online fashion retailer founded in 2011 that sells apparel, footwear, and accessories from over 500 international brands across Central and Eastern Europe. The company operates in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2021. Answear focuses on mid-to-premium fashion with strong logistics and localization for each market. It has become one of the leading multi-brand fashion e-commerce platforms in CEE, competing with Zalando and About You in the region.
Paris, France · Person Co-founder and president of Vestiaire Collective, the global resale marketplace for pre-owned luxury fashion she co-founded in 2009, helping pioneer the circular luxury economy.
Venice, Italy · Accelerator H-Farm was founded in 2005 by Riccardo Donadon and Maurizio Rossi near Treviso in the Venetian countryside, positioning itself as one of the earliest startup incubators in Europe — predating Y Combinator's launch by only months. The platform has since grown into a publicly listed (since 2015) innovation campus combining startup acceleration, corporate digital transformation services, and three international schools educating over 1,150 students aged 3–18. H-Farm has supported approximately 120 startups and is ranked among Italy's top innovation hubs by the Financial Times.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor Co-creator of fashion marketplace Showroom.pl, Jan became an angel investor after Showroom’s success. He has a keen eye for consumer and lifestyle startups and was nominated among top angels in 2018. Associated startups: Showroom.pl (co-founder), plus investments in fashion-tech and consumer platforms.
Amsterdam, Netherlands · Event Invite-only denim supply-chain trade show at Amsterdam's Westergas drawing 5,000+ trade buyers, mills, and brands with a strong sustainability and circularity focus. Access is trade-only and free for approved attendees. Strong entry point for fashion-tech, sustainable textiles, bio-materials, and circular manufacturing startups seeking global brand pilots.
Tbilisi, Georgia · Startup Phubber is a Tbilisi-based fashion re-commerce marketplace that combines the feed-driven social-shopping pattern popularized by Depop and Vinted with a mixed C2C and small-B2C inventory model tuned for the Caucasus. Buyers browse a scrollable, algorithmically ranked feed of pre-loved and indie-brand apparel; sellers can list in minutes with photos taken directly from the app; and the platform handles payments, local delivery integration, return flows, and dispute mediation so that trust — the usual blocker in peer-to-peer fashion — is not the user's problem. Phubber emerged as a breakout from the 500 Georgia/Eurasia program and is one of the more visible consumer-marketplace experiments coming out of Georgia, where most local tech is still B2B and fintech. It is a useful data point on how social-commerce patterns originally built for Western Gen-Z audiences are being re-implemented for emerging regional markets.
London, United Kingdom · Person Founder of Depop, the social marketplace for secondhand fashion that became a cultural phenomenon with Gen Z before its acquisition by Etsy. A designer by background, he also co-founded PIG magazine.
Frankfurt, Germany · Event International trade fair for textile and flexible material processing, co-located with Techtextil in Frankfurt and drawing 40,000+ combined visitors. Tickets EUR 30-60. Covers automated sewing, 3D body scanning, digital printing, and on-demand manufacturing. Prime venue for fashion-tech and textile startups demoing to global brand buyers.
Warsaw, Poland · Angel Investor CEO of Lancerto and active business angel focused on the overlap between traditional retail operations and modern digital commerce. Tomasz frequently mentors D2C founders and contributes as a jury member in startup competitions. His investment interests center on e-commerce, fashion tech, logistics, and tools that improve customer experience or supply-chain performance.