As a college student in 2017, Miqyas founder Abdulla Almazrooa was fascinated by the idea of offering online custom-fit options, and initially pondered upon the possibility of using it for measuring the Arabian thobe, a garment that’s traditionally worn by men of the Middle East. “I was just observing what was happening in computer vision and the quick advancements in deep learning, and it occurred to me that it was just a matter of time before we are able to scan human bodies using only a camera,” recalls Almazrooa. This idea was then modified to incorporate all clothing, from across the fashion e-commerce realm, and eventually led to the launch of Miqyas in 2020. Built as a software as a service (SaaS) platform, Miqyas helps online fashion retailers precisely measure clothing sizes for customers.  “We developed two Miqyas products,” Almazrooa explains. “The first service, ‘custom-fit,’ takes two customer images and measures exact body measurements. The second one, ‘size-it,’ asks users simple questions on product pages, and then recommends the perfect size on all brands. Our clients can use these plug-ins on their platforms to solve the problem of online fit, and we charge them a subscription fee.”

With many fashion retailers moving towards e-commerce as a result of the repercussions of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the demand for Miqyas’ services has increased. Take, for example, its recent partnership with Femi9, an online women’s fashion retailer. “Femi9 had a problem with online size, so we gave them the solution, and they’re not only using it on their e-commerce but in their physical stores too,” Almazrooa explains. “Women in Saudi don’t have fitting rooms in malls, which is inconvenient. But with Femi9’s physical stores, we eliminate that problem completely, by integrating our solution to their physical retail store, which resulted in fewer returns, higher convergence, and higher basket size.”

While the startup has been bootstrapped ever since its launch, Almazrooa says it was TAQADAM’s network that helped in gaining its first client. “I got in touch with a fellow TAQADAM entrepreneur from 2018, although we’d never met before, told him about our business and sure enough, that is how we got our first client through TAQADAM’s network,” he says. And it is this sense of togetherness that sets the accelerator program apart from the rest, according to the founder. “I can definitely see that everyone at TAQADAM wants to help each other out,” Almazrooa says. “We all want to see the other startups succeed and it’s a great community to be a part of. If you’re in the MENA region, I think it is the best accelerator program that exists!”

Source Credit: Entrepreneur