When Quentin de Crombrugghe saw a post by the Swedish shop ReTuna pass by on Facebook in 2018, he was intrigued. The concept totally revolves around circularity: people come and drop off old furniture and other things, which are then sold on. A bit like a recycling shop, but with separate shops per product category, each one run by a different freelancer.
Originated in Zweden, fine-tuned in Belgium
Along with a few friends and former colleagues, including Christel Droogmans, De Crombrugghe headed to Sweden to pay a visit to ReTuna. Although the Belgians were promptly fans of the concept, they felt it could still go one step further. The circular aspect could be more central, for example by selling products that took account with the end of the product’s life when they were created. The location could be better too, as the more central such a shop is in town, the lower the barrier for potential customers.
hub.brussels & Yuman: it takes a village
The seed was sown, as once back home, the friends launched a pop-up business in December 2018. This was such a success that the first shop followed on Chaussée de Charleroi in May 2019. Yuman Village was born. It’s a one-stop shop for the circular economy, where you’ll only find sustainable and ecological products.
hub.brussels provided support by:
On the financial side :
- expert financial and legal advice
- validation of the business plan
- putting you in touch with investors
Location:
- Help in finding new locations
- Analysis of shopping districts
Communication :
- Marketing advice
Quentin De Crombrugghe
Founder Yuman Villagehub.brussels helped us out a lot from the start. We had a contact who put us in touch with a range of specialists. We were given help in terms of the legal and financial side, but with the marketing or anything to do with safety alongside. We had a great deal of contact with hub.brussels in the first two years in particular. They always challenged and helped make Yuman Village great that way.
Yuman Village began with its own funding, but submitted a case to BeCircular pretty quickly. Out of that project call came an investment of 80,000 euros, followed by a second round in 2021. That consisted of 300,000 euros in crowdfunding through the online platform LITA.co and a second investment by BeCircular of 200,000 euros.
With the money, Yuman Village was able to open a second shop in Etterbeek in May 2023. 2024 will be an important year for Quentin de Crombrugghe and Christel Droogmans, as they aren’t ruling out a potential new opening. Yet the idea is not to turn Yuman Village into a chain, but mainly to generate as much impact as possible.
Met het geld kon Yuman Village in mei 2023 een tweede winkel openen in Etterbeek. 2024 wordt een belangrijk jaar voor Quentin de Crombrugghe en Christel Droogmans, want ze sluiten een mogelijke nieuwe opening niet uit. Toch is het niet de bedoeling om van Yuman Village een keten te maken, maar vooral om zo veel mogelijk impact te kunnen genereren.
Met het geld kon Yuman Village in mei 2023 een tweede winkel openen in Etterbeek. 2024 wordt een belangrijk jaar voor Quentin de Crombrugghe en Christel Droogmans, want ze sluiten een mogelijke nieuwe opening niet uit. Toch is het niet de bedoeling om van Yuman Village een keten te maken, maar vooral om zo veel mogelijk impact te kunnen genereren.
