RIYADH —Three Saudi start-ups tackling sustainability challenges across beauty, luxury resale and textile waste were awarded the very first Kering Generation Award X Saudi Arabia, presented in partnership with the Saudi Fashion Commission.
The winners, selected from more than 500 applicants, were revealed at a ceremony Monday in the Saudi capital. Each will receive mentorship from Kering’s sustainability teams in Paris and showcase their innovations at the ChangeNOW Summit 2025.
Kering’s initiative, the first of its kind in the Middle East, aligns with the luxury giant’s vision to foster sustainability across global fashion markets by supporting young entrepreneurs. The award first launched in China in 2018 before expanding to Japan and now Saudi Arabia. The aim is to identify and bolster innovative start-ups that address pressing challenges such as alternative raw materials, green supply chain and the circular economy.
“In Saudi Arabia you have a lot of people who are really thinking about innovation, which really impressed us and why we decided to create the Kering Award here,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, the group’s chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer. “We strongly believe initiatives like the Kering Generation Award is key to help to contribute and expand the start-up ecosystem; from ideation and R&D to scaling commercialization and adoption.”
The Saudi Fashion Commission has been working to build the fashion ecosystem in the kingdom for the last five years and sustainability is a key pillar.
“We are a country that’s greenfield to fashion, and we want to make sure we do the right thing,” said Burak Cakmak, chief executive officer of the Saudi Fashion Commission, during the awards ceremony. “We have been observing what needs to happen to build a better fashion economy. Now we are arriving at a point where we are able to support a new generation of fashion businesses in Saudi doing things differently using sustainability as its core.”
The three winners represent diverse approaches to sustainability.
“As you see, we can touch on many aspects of the industry,” said Cakmak.
Asteri, founded by Sarah Al Rashid, is a premium Saudi beauty brand aiming to revolutionize the sector with sustainable products designed specifically for Arab women. “Growing up, I always struggled finding proper makeup that was suitable for me, for my skin tones, for the weather in Saudi,” said Al Rashid.
The B Corp-certified brand offers “desert-proof” products with 70 percent sustainable packaging, targeting the $6.5 billion Middle Eastern beauty market.
The second winner, Amused, founded by Sarah Teymoor and her husband Mansoor Banaja, is addressing luxury fashion consumption through its pre-owned marketplace. The platform has already generated $1.2 million in sales and built a community of 35,000 active subscribers. “The secondhand luxury market in the Middle East is huge, growing from $3 billion in 2023 to over $11 billion by 2034,” Teymoor explained, citing the growth opportunity.
The third honoree, Darah Solutions Lab, tackles textile waste in Saudi Arabia by transforming discarded clothes into new items. “Fashion is a realm built on creativity, yet its environmental impact is impossible to ignore,” said founder Rawan Alderaibi. She has found a way to channel her creativity toward making new pieces out of textile waste. “The industry produces 92 million tons of waste annually, we can do something with that.”
The winners were chosen by a jury of 10 including Daveu; Miral Youssef, Kering president of Middle East and Africa, and Amanda Smith, chief executive officer of Fairchild Media Group, parent of WWD, Footwear News, Beauty Inc and Sourcing Journal. Innovation platform Plug and Play was the local partner on the ground in Riyadh for Kering, reviewing the hundreds of applications to identify 10 finalists.
“We are very proud of the excellent results from this first edition,” said Daveu. “The winners demonstrate that sustainability can drive innovation and create value, which is crucial for companies that want to future-proof their operations. It’s not about philanthropy, it’s about putting sustainability at the heart of business strategy.”
She explained one key criteria for selection was having measurable impact. “Rather than supporting very early-stage start-ups, we sought out companies that already had concrete products, manufacturing capabilities and a clear path to scale,” Daveu said.
Kering has long been committed to sustainability. “Our chairman and CEO, François-Henri Pinault, was convinced over 15 years now that sustainability is not only an ethical imperative, but it’s also good for the business,” Daveu shared. The company has 100 employees focused on sustainability. The winners of the Kering Generation Award will be able to tap into that large pool of expertise at Kering.
Daveu was quick to point out that the learning goes both ways. “We are always trying to find disruptive innovations because we can use these innovations inside our brands.”
Kering has a material innovation lab in Milan which catalogs more than 8,000 sustainable fabrics the design teams across the group’s fashion houses can access as a resource to make more sustainable choices in product development.
Looking ahead, Kering remains committed to evolving the program with the Saudi Fashion Commission to meet regional needs and opportunities.
“This is not about a one-off award, but about building a long-term program that can grow and change over time,” said Daveu. “By working closely with local partners and identifying the right innovators, we believe the Kering Generation can be a powerful force for sustainable transformation in Saudi Arabia and beyond. I hope that it’s only the beginning of many things that we will do here.”
