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Secondary market sales of fashion and luxury goods are booming, with the global market for secondhand luxury goods growing by 28 percent in 2022 to reach $45.21 billion, according to Bain & Company, which is 1.3 times higher than the growth rate for new luxury goods. “The secondhand market is already worth 3 percent to 5 percent of the overall apparel, footwear, and accessories sector,” according to Boston Consulting Group, which says that the segment “could grow to as much as 40 percent, depending on macroeconomic conditions.” Such growth is likely to be helped by changing consumer preferences and the macroeconomic climate, with consumers increasingly tapping into the online consignment segment to save money and to shop more “sustainably.”
All the while, new market entrants have rushed to meet burgeoning demand (bringing “an increased supply of goods” with them, per Bain) and existing players are looking to differentiate themselves and their value propositions. Against this background, funding keeps pouring into the secondary market – whether it be funneled into new resale platforms or already-established ones that are looking to expand their operations, including in an international capacity – and all the while, given the increasingly crowded nature of the market, consolidation is starting to come into effect, with existing entities joining forces to grab a bigger share of the market. With so much activity underway on the resale and rental space, we have compiled a tracker of investments and M&A events to provide a broad overview of which players are fundraising, merging, and what the trajectory of this segment of the market – which only appears to be gaining in steam – looks like more generally …
FASHIONPHILE has purchased the assets of Two Authenticators Inc. (“2a”), a Montreal-based wholesale distributor of authenticated, pre-owned luxury vintage. The San Diego-based luxury resale company revealed that following the acquisition, Fred Mannella, co-founder and CEO of 2a will assume the role of Senior Vice President of Wholesale at FASHIONPHILE, reporting to co-founder and CEO Ben Hemminger. “We continue to be excited about the opportunity to diversify our omnichannel operations and enter the secondhand wholesale market in the U.S. and internationally,” Hemminger said. “By acquiring 2a and adding Fred Mannella to our team as one of the world’s leading luxury vintage experts, we are well positioned to enter this new phase of growth as we look to provide trusted, authenticated, branded accessories to all sectors of the growing market for secondhand luxury.”
Trademylux Limited has raised £300,000 from TRICAPITAL Angels Limited and Scottish Enterprise, as it aims to launch a number of luxury goods resale platforms. The Edinburgh-based company – which employs “stringent checks to establish proof of identity, ownership rights and authenticity” of the goods at issue – stated that the first of such sites, sellmyartworks.com, will “focus on the art resale market” and will be followed by other luxury goods resale platforms. Founder Bob Corsie said, “There is a real demand for an easy-to-use, secure and equitable resale service[s] … and burgeoning demand on the customer side which we can satisfy easily and cost effectively.”
Vestiaire Collective has launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of raising at least one million euros ($1.09 million) from individual investors amid a bid to “become profitable by year-end and potentially go public.” The Paris-headquartered resale company’s funding round, which is open to anyone over age 18 in Europe and the United Kingdom, is accessible via its website and mobile app, according to CEO Maximilian Bittner. According to Reuters, “The crowdfunding is priced at 1.78 euros ($1.94) per share, valuing Vestiaire at 1.1 billion euros ($1.20 billion). That is in line with a November funding round led by private equity firm Eurazeo, its biggest shareholder with a stake of around 25%. In mid-2022 the company was valued at 1.4 billion euros.”
Off-price fashion retailer BrandAlley has acquired The Edit LDN following a “difficult economic climate” for the sneaker and streetwear resale platform in 2023. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. “We’re incredibly excited for the journey ahead and look forward to working with Rob Feldmann, Ray Clacher and the executive team taking The Edit LDN to infinity and beyond with the Brand Alley family,” The Edit LDN’s CEO and founder Moses Rashid stated on LinkedIn.
HURR has raised £7.9 million ($10 million) in a new funding round from Praetura Ventures and participation from existing investors including Ascension, D4 Ventures, and Octopus Ventures. The latest round for the UK-based fashion rental platform, which was founded in 2017 by Victoria Prew, comes on the heels of HURR raising £4 million in a 2021 Seed round led by European VC firm Octopus Ventures. “Combining our incredible peer-to-peer community whilst also powering rental for 130+ of your favourite fashion brands and the UK’s four biggest retailers,” HURR said in a statement.
FASHIONPHILE has acquired the inventory, intellectual property assets, including domains, and other intangible assets of LXR Luxury Products International Inc., Groupe Global LXR Inc., and LXR Canada Inc., which are the operating subsidiaries of LXRandCO, Inc., the Montreal-based omni-channel retailer of authenticated, pre-owned luxury accessories. The deal comes on the heel of the LXRandCO subsidiaries filing a notice of intention to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada).
The acquisition of LXR – which “has curated, sourced and authenticated high-quality, pre-owned products from iconic brands, such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada and Chanel, selling directly to customers through their website and indirectly by powering the e-commerce and other platforms of key channel partners” – will facilitate FASHIONPHILE’s ability to diversify its selling channels beyond direct-to-consumer, elevated circular retail experiences and clienteling and expand into B2B wholesale and new omnichannel operations.
Fine jewelry and luxury watch marketplaces Worthy and CIRCA Jewels will merge to create a company that they say is worth more than $100 million. The two real companies connect sellers and buyers of pre-owned fine jewelry and watches, “with Cartier and Rolex being the most-traded signed jewelry and watch brands on the platforms,” per Reuters. “The companies said they will continue to operate under their own banners for now. Worthy’s Steven Schneider will continue to serve as chief executive officer while CIRCA CEO Oren Schneider will become General Manager.” Schneider said in a statement, “You have to have deep product expertise and have a path to create transparency and value and I think we do that better than anyone else in the market, certainly as a combined business.”
PopChill has raised $1.9 million in a new round from ITIC, AVA Angels Fund, 500 Global, Acorn Pacific Ventures, and Darwin Venture, bringing its total funding to date to $5.2 million. The Taiwan-based luxury resale marketplace will use the new funds to expand into the Hong Kong market, hoping to replicate the rapid growth experienced in Taiwan over the past year. PopChill’s co-founder, Andy Kuo, said in a statement: “After a year of operation, the current monthly transaction volume in the Taiwanese market has exceeded US$1 million. The average order value on the platform has also reached $800, representing the trust that buyers and sellers have in the platform.” The Taiwanese market maintains a growth of at least 10% every month, not only establishing a reputation in the luxury market but also gradually reaching a wider audience.
Vopero has raised $4 million in new funds in a round led by Cencosud Ventures. The Uruguayan resale startup will use the funds to accelerate its in Latin America-specific expansion plans, including its intent to launch in Chile by the end of the year and aim to establish partnerships with physical retailers to showcase its items. Additionally, Vopero plans to expand its franchising program in department stores and increase adoption of resale practices among top fashion brands. The funding will also support Vopero’s marketing efforts, including collaborations with influencers to promote sustainable fashion choices. The company’s “resale-as-a-service” model offers an end-to-end solution for sellers, making it easy to list and sell second-hand items. “With a focus on sustainability and convenience,” Vopero says that it “aims to revolutionize the way Latin American consumers access and purchase pre-owned fashion.”
NOLD has raised €1 million in a Seed round led by Tilia Impact Ventures with participation from a consortium of venture capital and strategic investors, including Depo Ventures, Czech Founders, Sofia Angels Ventures, and New Vision 3, among others. The funds will be used to support the launch and adoption of NOLD’s fashion resale platform in the first quarter of 2024, with a primary focus on the UK market. The Boryana Uzunova and Ana Kremenlieva-founded Bulgarian resale company boasts a “peer-to-peer marketplace that redefines fashion resale [and] empowers brands and their customers to seamlessly enter the resale market while ensuring the fastest, most aesthetic, financially-efficient, and environmentally-efficient experience.”
NOLD said in a statement that it “prizes itself on the user engagement, brand partnerships, and industry endorsement. If the brands want to cooperate with the platform, they can provide their product database and choose to either capture 10% of the resale value in net profit or 90% in revenue.”
Pickle has raised $8 million in a Seed round led by FirstMark Capital and Craft Ventures with participation from Burst Capital. The NYC-based peer-to-peer rental marketplace, which makes local closets shareable on demand, will use the new funds to expand into new categories, new U.S. markets, and into brick-and-mortar retail in New York. CEO Brian McMahon said in a statement, “There’s a lot of research on marketplaces and the competitive landscape and we just really fell in love with the market business model.”
Sign of the Times has raised new funds in a round with participations from BrandAlley and Sweaty Betty founder Tamara Hill-Norton. The London-based luxury resale platform did not disclose the sum raised or terms of the round, but said in a statement that the new funds will be spent on marketing initiatives, strategic hires, and the acquisition of assets from Cudoni, a fellow resale company that it revealed it would acquire in August 2023.
Finematter has raised £2.2 million in a Seed round with participation from angel investors such as Heini Zachariassen (Vivino), Christine de Wendel (Zalando/Sunday), Jeppe Rindom (Pleo), Dino Patti (Playdead/Jumpship), Peder Micheal Pruzan-Jørgensen (Pandora’s Sustainability board), and participation from existing shareholder Heartcore Capital, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date to £2.6 million. Founded in 2021 by Caroline Chalmer, London-based Finematter provides “a marketplace that enables customers to order, repair, remodel, and recycle jewelry.” The company said in a statement that it will use the new funds to “develop our platform further, expand our network of jewellers, and create a lasting impact on the circularity of the jewelry space.”
Sign of the Times has acquired assets from Cudoni, which collapsed into administration in April 2023. The London-based luxury resale platform completed the acquisition of its fellow resale company in June, just month after Cudoni went into administration in April citing the rising cost of living and economic crisis as the reason. In late January, Cudoni raised 7.5 million pounds in a funding round led by eBay’s venture arm.
Trove has raised $30 million in a Series E round co-led by Wellington Management and ArcTern Ventures, with participation from Mitsui Fudosan’s CVC Fund, G2 Venture Partners, Prelude Ventures, and other existing Trove investors. The round brings the Brisbane, California-based resale company’s total funding to date to over $150 million. Trove – which touts itself as “the market leader in branded resale and trade-in for world-class brands and retailers including Canada Goose, Carhartt, lululemon, Patagonia, REI, Levi’s, Arc’teryx, Allbirds, and more” – will use the new funds to fuel its expansion with new brands and verticals, and to further the growth of Trove Recommerce Powered facilities as it meets the surging demand for its branded resale solutions. The new capital comes amid the international expansion for the company which boasts five facilities across North America, with “more to come.”
“For over a decade, Trove has been the pioneer behind leading resale programs,” Trove CEO Gayle Tait said in a statement. “We equip brands to own their resale experience and engage with new and existing customers. This is only possible through our proprietary technology and unparalleled warehouse and logistics capabilities. Now, our accelerating scale and flexibility means we can deliver more impact across categories and markets, keeping millions of quality items in circulation.”
Croissant has launched with $24 million in Seed funding from a suite of investors, including Portage and KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis, as well as Third Prime, BoxGroup, 25madison, and Twelve Below. The New York and Nashville-based company – whose founding team is led by Co-Founder and CEO John Howard (formerly of KKR), Co-Founder and CTO John Klose (Amazon, PayPal), and Head of Product Vrishti Mongia (Meta, Moda Operandi) – provides a fintech platform that “integrates into merchants’ existing shopping experiences and offers customers a guaranteed buyback value at checkout, boosting conversion and average order value.” Moreover, Croissant’s data science and AI tooling “generates the guaranteed buyback values offered to customers, and Croissant fulfills those guarantees. Post-purchase, items become liquid assets within customers’ Croissant accounts that they can later sell with one click. Once customers have sold their items, they are directed back to merchants with new funds to power future purchases, making for higher retention rates and lifetime value.”
“Only a small percentage of resellable fashion is transacted globally each year, but it’s still a $130 billion market that is rapidly growing,” Stephanie Choo, Partner at Portage, said in a statement. “To date, retailers are seeing little to no benefit from this ongoing boom. Croissant enables them to harness the interest in and growth of resale to drive new full-price sales with minimal integration and no need to transact within the secondhand ecosystem themselves.”
The company’s advisory board includes Rent the Runway Co-Founder and Board Member Jennifer Fleiss; former Chief Merchandising Officer of Intermix Divya Mathur; Lara Meiland-Shaw, a luxury fashion veteran with over 20 years of experience at brands like Louis Vuitton, Moncler, and Saks Fifth Avenue; and Homer and Outdoor Voices Founding Partner Andrew Parietti.
Arrive Recommerce has raised $16 million in a Series A round that was co-led by Javelin Venture Partners and Climatic VC, and that brings its total funding to date to just upwards of $25 million. Other participants in the round include Alpaca VC, Animo VC, Banana Capital, Cosmic Venture Partners, Freestyle VC, 444 Capital, Maersk Growth, Regeneration VC, Sidekick VC, and Wedbush Ventures. The Santa Monica, CA-based resale technology company, which “powers resale for the world’s most innovative brands & retailers,” will use the new funds to “expand its platform and to include more brands and operators in the re-commerce industry.” Co-founded by Rachelle Snyder and Ross Richmond, Arrive Recommerce “specializes in resale market with a profitable, sustainable and scalable branded resale channel. Returns to Recommerce™ focuses on turning a cost center into a profit center by helping brands and retailers divert products such as non-new returns, excess inventory, and damaged inventory into a fully-branded revenue generating resale channel.”
Arrive Recommerce CEO and co-founder Rachelle Snyder said in a statement: “Recommerce should be a core pillar of a brand or retailer’s strategy. Our investors and brand partners share our enthusiasm about the evolution of this space, and this funding will allow us to expand our platform, continuing to lead this space with innovation and brand protection.” Co-founder and COO Ross Richmond said: “Recommerce is a trend that is exploding with demand from both the brand and consumer side. By providing a profitable sustainable programme with our returns-based resale offering, we have hit a sweet spot in the market.”
Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has taken a minority stake in Chrono24 by way of his CR7 SA entity. Ronaldo joins a list of other well-known names in Chrono24, which is a leading online marketplace for pre-owned luxury watches, including LVMH chair Bernard Arnault, who took part in Chrono24’s €100 million Series C round in August 2021 via Aglaé Ventures, the technology arm of the Arnault family’s investment company. (The Series C brought the now-20-year-old Chrono24’s total funding to €200 million, and nabbed it a valuation of more than $1 billion.) “As a long-term watch collector and regular user of Chrono24, it’s a pleasure for me to become a shareholder in the company now,” Ronaldo said in a statement. “Chrono24 unites millions of watch lovers from all around the world to share in their passion, together—that global unification is something I know well and am thrilled to be a part of.”
The terms of Ronaldo’s investment have not been disclosed.
Swoperz has raised £250,000 in a pre-Seed round led by Jenson Funding Partners. The London-based secondhand children’s clothing marketplace says it will use the funds to “further build a scalable platform that is a safe, online-verified environment for the next generation.” The subscription-based platform was founded in 2021 by Charlene Hurlock and Vicky Fuller, and offers up pre-owned apparel for children ages 6-16. Hurlock and Fuller said in a statement, “Swoperz gives children safe access to a huge range of age appropriate, preloved clothing so they can showcase their style every day. Parents can also feel safe in the knowledge that the platform is fully verified and controlled by them.”
Laced has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Talis Capital, with participation from H&M Group Ventures, the investment arm of H&M Group, BY Venture Partners, Truesight Ventures, as well as a number of angel investors, including Bart Swanson (current board member at Impossible Foods, and previously at Zoom) and Eric Archambeau (Co-Founder of Astanor Ventures). This brings the funding for the London-based sneaker resale marketplace, which was founded in 2018 by CEO Chris Gibbons, to $13 million following a $1 million pre-seed round in 2020. The company will use the new funds to “further expand and develop its technology and product offering.” Footwear accounts for “20 percent of the value of all counterfeit goods, and the counterfeit sneaker market is estimated to be worth five times the legitimate market,” Laced chief of staff Gareth Olyott told TechCrunch. “This shows that the proliferation of counterfeit items in this sector is a huge problem for collectors and enthusiasts alike. Laced removes the risk of buying an item from an unregulated marketplace, and for it to arrive and be inauthentic.”
eBay Inc. and Certilogo, a provider of AI-powered apparel and fashion goods digital IDs and authentication, announced that eBay has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Certilogo. In a statement, the companies revealed that Certilogo’s platform uses digital technology to empower brands and designers to “manage the lifecycle of their garments, while providing consumers a seamless way to confirm authenticity, access reliable information about branded items, and easily activate circular services.” eBay says the acquisition further solidifies it as “a trusted destination to shop for pre-loved apparel and fashion, and marks a key investment in the growing pre-loved fashion category.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Volte has raised $4 million in a series A funding round from eBay Ventures and Perth-based Better Labs. The Perth, Australia-based luxury apparel rental platform, which enables consumers to lease their clothing in its site (consumers handle all logistics – including delivery, returns, cleaning and any damage to the item – themselves) will use the new funds to build out its team and to expand the company’s technological capabilities with a goal of returning to profitability. Speaking specifically about eBay, Volte chief executive and co-founder Bernadette Olivier said patterning with them “makes a lot of sense, [as] both businesses are focused on the circular economy – eBay is about resale, we are about rental. Working together was a straightforward next step.”
ThredUP has dual listed its Class A common stock on the Long-Term Stock Exchange (“LTSE”), a subsidiary of LTSE Group, making the secondary market platform the first consumer company to list on the exchange. “With this listing, thredUP threw down the gauntlet for all consumer companies,” said Eric Ries, founder and chairman of LTSE. “It is not enough to make pledges to your stakeholders; it is time for binding commitments the public can believe.” In a statement, thredUP and LTSE said that they are “pioneering the next generation of capitalism where traditional measures of financial performance and generating long-term sustainable value are integrated, [with] the dual listing demonstrates how thredUP is reframing capitalism through an impact lens, which is a key tenet of thredUP’s business strategy and core to thredUP’s mission to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first.”
ThredUp first listed on the NASDAQ in March 2021, raising $168 million at a $1.3 billion valuation after pricing its shares at $14 each.
Monogram has raised almost €3 million in a new funding round led by family office HWA with participation from four unnamed angels investors. The Paris-based resale company, which was founded in 2015 by CEO Beverly Sonego, will use the new funds for “recruitment of C-suite profiles, an internal development team, and beefing up the customer relationship and experience team, and developing its own technologies, with AI-enhanced authentication and pricing tools as priorities,” per WWD. The reseller is also looking to expand its reach to the Benelux region, as well as North Africa and Dubai, with managing director Cécile Maudy stating that “a stronger international development strategy would be rolled out starting 2024.”
Korean resale platform Kream has raised a $168 million in a Series C round led by Altos Ventures, a returning backer with participation from search titan Naver, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Mirae Asset Capital, Samsung Securities, and Axiom Asia. The round values Kream at approximately $742 million, up from its valuation of $306 million in October 2021. The company, which was founded in 2020, will use the new cash to “make more investments, mainly in Asia in line with its long-term goal of strategically connecting Asia-based reselling platforms so that its users can leverage Kream and its C2C resale affiliates to buy and sell luxury items,” per TechCrunch. Kream will also add more luxury items and emerging brands to its platform and expand its staff.
Resale platform Responsible has acquired fellow Belfast-based reseller Haru in a deal that Responsible says will enable it to “continue to push the boundaries of circularity in the fashion industry.” Specifically, Responsible – which was founded in 2021 and raised a $6.6 million seed round in Jan. 2022 – says the acquisition will enable it to “strengthen its brand and customer-facing apps with Haruʼs advanced operational, digitization, and pricing algorithms.” Mark Dowds, CEO of Responsible, said in connection with the deal, “By combining our respective technologies and expertise, we further increase the efficiencies and profitability required to grow the adoption of circular business models by brands and drive consumer behavior change at scale.” The terms have not been disclosed.
Saclàb has raised €1.6 million ($1.69 million) in a seed round led by Estonia’s Trind Ventures and Germany’s G-Fund. The Munich-based reseller – which focuses on hard-to-get luxury handbags – says it will use the cash to scale its tech infrastructure and increase marketing activities ahead of a U.S. launch. “We are planning our soft launch in the US this year and creating an online storefront. Besides that, we have many UX/UI improvements coming up to make the selling and buying experience even more smooth and fun,” Saclàb co-founder Alexandra Stück said.
Swag Kicks has raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by i2i Ventures, with participation from Techstars Toronto, CrossFund Hong Kong, Rose Lake Ventures, Elevation Ventures, and STAK group. The Pakistan-based sneaker and fashion resale platform – which says that it has listed over 25,000 items on its platform, including shoes, apparel, and bags, and has served over 100,000 customers to date – will use the new cash to “build up inventories and stocks, expand market outreach and introduce innovative technology to manage growing demand.” It is also planning to expand abroad, tapping into the global direct-to-consumer and B2B thrift and vintage circular fashion business.
Cudoni has raised 7.5 million pounds ($9.3 million) from eBay’s venture arm and existing investors, such as Daily Mail Group Venture, in its latest round. The London-based resale platform “provides a luxury resale service in which it picks up items from sellers’ homes, evaluates and lists the items and sells them on commission,” per PYMNTS, with the firm handling “apparel, jewelry, watches and other items from 4,000 designer brands.”
This round follows from a 4.6 million pound 2020 Series A for Cudoni in 2020, which was led by Daily Mail Group, with participation from retail advisor Andrew Jennings, as well as Hunt Investment Group and Concurrence Capital. The cash from its previous round was slated to be used to fund international growth for the now-6-year-old reseller.
Barcelona-based resale platform has raised €81 million ($87.4 million) in an extended Series G round (it raised a $191 million in a Series G in February 2021), bringing its total funding over 8 rounds to €239.6 million. According to TechCrunch, 9-year-old Wallapop will use the new cash to invest into its operations in Spain, Italy, and Portugal “after seeing its 2.4 million downloads in the first half of the year in Italy (a newer market for the app) and a 600 percent increase in cross-border activity between Spain and Italy in that period.” The company is also planning to bulk up its use of data science and other areas of R&D to boost discovery, personalization and other tools to connect buyers with items they want.”
The Edit LDN has raised $4.8 million in a seed round led by egah Ventures, with participation from sports celebrities including New York Giants Captain Xavier McKinney, NBA athlete PJ Tucker and Premier League soccer player Jesse Lingard. The company will use the new cash to help it scale in its sneaker and streetwear marketplace in the U.S. and MENA (Middle East North Africa) regions.
“We have been laser focused on providing a premium service and doing this super-fast to anyone buying limited edition sneakers globally,” said Moses Rashid, CEO at The Edit LDN in a statement. “Having built relationships with brands, celebrities and consigners, we can secure the most sought-after products by clients. Our robust authentication process and detailed supply chains have helped to grow trust and love for the brand — we will double down on our tech stack to ensure we are ahead of the curve to source, offer and send the latest sneakers to anyone, anywhere in the world quickly.”
Beni announced the close of its seed round of $4 million, led by Buoyant Ventures, bringing its funding from both its pre-seed and seed rounds to over $5 million to date. The Santa Barbara-based company says that it “welcomes shoppers to the world of re-commerce by making it easier to find and buy secondhand apparel and accessories. When a shopper finds something they want, the browser extension suggests similar listings from leading resale sites.”
The company – which has partnered with over 30 resale sites, such as The RealReal, Rent the Runway, Vestiaire Collective, eBay, and Kidizen – stated in a release that “with Poshmark’s recent acquisition by Naver and ThredUp’s projected revenue exceeding $82B by 2026, shoppers are clearly invested in supporting the circular fashion economy. Beni was designed with this in mind, enabling shoppers to save money and shop sustainably with the click of a button.”
Advanced Clothing Solutions closed a $12.1 million investment from Circularity Capital to further develop its rental, subscription, and resale operations. The company, which bills itself as the UK’s leading circular and sustainable fashion enabler, works with brands and retailers to provide them with “a complete rental, subscription, and resale service with storage for more than three million items of clothing.”
“I am delighted to partner with Circularity Capital, this strategic partnership recognizes our objective of creating one of Europe’s largest circular fashion solutions providers specializing in clothing rental, subscription and resale,” ACS chief executive Andrew Rough said. Meanwhile, Andrew Shannon, founding partner at Circularity Capital, asserted, “ACS provides the capabilities and processes to enable retailers to scale their rental, subscription and resale ambitions with ease, transforming the industry from a traditional take-make-dispose model to one of reuse and resale.”
Yaga, an Estonian-founded e-commerce startup, has raised €2.2 million in a round led by Startup Wise Guys, with participation from Trind Ventures, Specialist VC, and Rubylight. Founded in 2019, Yaga enables customers in growing markets in Asia and Africa to buy and sell pre-owned fashion. Yaga founder and CEO Aune Aunapuu says the company will use the new cash to “continue its rapid growth over the next year,” specifically aiming “to develop the company’s platform, grow its team, and attract new customers.”
Pre-owned luxury rental membership company Vivrelle closed a $35 million Series B financing round led by 3L Capita, with participation from Origin Ventures, Chapford Capital Group, Plus Capital, actresses Lily Collins and Nina Dobrev, and reality star/influencer Morgan Stewart McGraw. The funding, which follows from 4-year-old Vivrelle’s $26 million Series A in April 22021, will be used to “promote accelerated growth across all verticals of the brand’s business.” New York-based Vivrelle’s co-founder and CEO Blake Geffen said, “We look forward to expanding Vivrelle on many fronts, including our inventory offerings, opening additional showroom spaces, and growing our hard working team.”
Treet, which works with brands ranging from ultra-fast fashion giant Shein to cult-favorite brand Dôen, raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by First Round Capital. The San Francisco-based resale platform says it will use the new funds to “increase recruitment, accelerate brand partnerships and expand services.” The round brings the total funds raised in pre-seed and seed funding rounds to $6.4 million.
Pre-owned luxury fashion platform Plum announced on November 1 that it raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Tencent-based pre-owned marketplace Zhuanzhuan. Beijing-based Plum’s co-founder and CEO Xu Wei said in a statement that the funds will be used to upgrade Plum’s services, user experience, product R&D, and database construction. The round comes amid striking growth for Plum, which surpassed rival luxury e-commerce platform Secoo in terms of site traffic in Q4 2021, and doubled revenues in 2022 compared to the year prior.
Goat Group Inc. will acquire Grailed in furtherance of an effort to grow its footprint in the secondary apparel market. As Bloomberg reported on October 13, “Grailed, a peer-to-peer fashion site, will continue to operate under its own brand and will integrate Goat’s operations infrastructure, including shipping and payments” as part of the deal, the terms of which were not disclosed. “We’ve been continuing to see growth across our businesses, especially in apparel and accessories, which have doubled the past 12 months,” Eddy Lu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Goat Group, told Bloomberg. “When you’re looking to accelerate growth even further, that’s when consolidation makes sense.”
Goat Group currently owns GOAT, the global platform for new and used sneakers, apparel and accessories, as well as rare sneaker-reseller Flight Club and resale sneaker and apparel brand Alias.
Naver Corp will acquire resale platform Poshmark for $1.2 billion in a deal that Naver says values Poshmark at about $1.6 billion, including about $580 million of cash reserves. The Seongnam-based internet conglomerate, which owns South Korean’s top search engine, will pay $17.90 in cash for all of Poshmark’s issued and outstanding shares, a sum that is strikingly less than the $42 per share that Redwood City, California-headquartered Poshmark priced its January 2021 IPO. Naver says that it expects the deal – which will “expand and diversify [its] leading e-commerce platform, strengthen its community with a global social network of younger users, and position it to capitalize on the global online fashion re-commerce and sustainable economy opportunity” – to close by Q1 of 2023.
In a statement, Naver CEO Choi Soo-Yeon said, “The combination will create the strongest platform for powering communities and re-fashioning commerce. Poshmark is the definitive brand for fashion in the United States that provides a social network for buying and selling apparel. Naver’s leading technology in search, AI recommendation and e-commerce tools will help power the next phase of Poshmark’s global growth.”
Sneaker and streetwear reseller Impossible Kicks (“IK”) announced the close of a $3 million Series-A equity raise on September 20, bringing its total funding raised to $7 million since its founding in February 2021. In a statement, IK expects $55 million-plus in sales in 2022, up from $15 million in sales in 2021. The Irvine, California-based company will use the cash to facilitate its “continued expansion plan across the United States, which includes two new locations prior to the end of the year and nine additional storefronts in 2023.” (As of Sept. 2022, the brand supports 15 storefronts across nine states – including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Texas.)
“With an unrivaled brick and mortar presence,” IK says it “will also augment its e-commerce and digital efforts, including the development of proprietary products.”
Houston-based Tradeblock has raised more than $8.9 million in seed funding from investors Courtside VC, Trinity Ventures and Concrete Rose Capital, the company announced August 25. The company is planning a rolling close to its current Seed II round and expects to bring in an additional $4.5 million from investors by close. Launched in 2020, Tradeblock consists of a barter-based trading platform for shoe collectors. With the new funding, the company plans to invest in expanding its authentication and logistics efforts, as well as its data science capabilities to better enhance the platform’s virtual bartering experience.
Reflaunt closed its Series A round with a total of $11 million in funding, the the London and Singapore-based resale-as-a-service company announced on August 24. The close comes a couple of weeks after the circular fashion service provider first revealed that it had welcomed $5.2 million in funding from the likes of Bombyx Capital Partners, Shanghai-based Ventech China, and TLF Ventures. Global Blue, a Swiss-based tourism shopping tax refund company, also participated in the Series A round, along with early investors, including Swarovski’s creative director Giovanna Battaglia and American retail conglomerate Madaluxe Group.
Reflaunt says it will use the new cash to expand its services and secure new partnerships with luxury brands and retailers. “We have integrated the resale experience in the brand’s ecosystem, which allows us to record the product’s digital ID at the moment of check-out and foster a seamless resell-in-a-click experience when the customer is ready to give the product a second life,” Reflaunt co-foudner and CEO Stephanie Crespin said in a statement.
South Korea-based luxury goods marketplace Trenbe announced on August 22 that it raised 35 billion won ($25.2 million) in a Series D funding round, which included investors, such as IMM Investment and Atinum Investment. Gangnam-headquartered Trenbe says that it will use the funds to “diversify its business and improve customer experience.” The round follows from the company’s July 2020 Series B, in which it raised 11 billion won.
Gen-Z-focused pre-owned fashion platform Galaxy has raised $7 million in new funding from investors that include Snap Inc’s Yellow Accelerator, Floodgate, RGH Capital, Turner Novack’s Banana Capital, and Homebrew. Launched in August 2021, the company combines live-shopping and fashion resale in order to “build entertaining and engaging experiences that generate explicit data” – via machine learning – “where users tell us what they like by interacting with our product,” CEO Danny Quick stated in announcing the round. The company says that it will use the newly-raised cash to implement “new, user-friendly features and increased opportunities for creators to feel empowered and earn a living on their own terms, in their own time.”
Singapore-based online classifieds giant Carousell has signed off on a deal to acquire secondhand retailer Refash for an undisclosed sum, as the resale market continues to grow in Asia. Carousell said in a statement that 7-year-old Refash, which touts itself as an “online thrift store,” will continue to operate its own brand, as distinct from the Carousell entity, and that the acquisition is expected to “drive a synergistic partnership between the two marketplaces.”
Korean sneaker marketplace SoldOut raised $33 million in a funding round led led by Korea online retail titan Musina and FinTech Dunamu. The nearly 2-year-old resale company will use the funds to fuel its expand into new product categories and build out its customer experience, including by upgrading its platform and opening a second inspection center in Seoul.
French resale company Vestiaire Collective announced its acquisition of Tradesy, “a U.S. pioneer in the fashion resale industry,” on Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said in a statement that by joining forces, they will “significantly increase the size and reach of their peer-to-peer marketplaces, to the direct benefit of their sellers and buyers. The combined company will boast a membership community of 23 million, a catalog of 5 million items and a Gross Merchandise Value exceeding $1 billion. Customers of both Vestiaire Collective and Tradesy will significantly benefit from the companies’ alliance.”
*As of August 2022, Vestaire announced that it would fold Tradesy into its own brand in furtherance of a larger effort to bolster its presence in the U.S. market.
Rebag has raised $35 million in funding a Series E round, bringing the 6-year-old resale company’s total funding to $103 million. “Following a strong year driven by technological advances and category expansion,” Rebag says that the round – which was led by private equity firm Novator with participation from existing investors, such as General Catalyst – “positions [it] for its next cycle of innovation and accelerated growth,” and that the investment funds will be used to further build upon Comprehensive Luxury Appraisal Index for Resale, its proprietary software aimed at bringing transparency to the luxury resale industry. The company says it will also use the round to scale its tech-enabled brick-and-mortar business.
Fashion e-commerce platform Farfetch announced on December 9 that it has acquired resale platform LUXCLUSIF, including the company’s technology platform, for an undisclosed sum. This deal will allow FARFETCH to “significantly accelerate its resale capabilities through the development of key technology and service features such as automated pricing, and faster geographic and category expansion of its resale service, FARFETCH Second Life,” the London-based company stated.
Founded in 2013, LUXCLUSIF is a B2B service provider with “a successful turnkey solution enabling the acquisition, authentication and sale of second hand luxury goods to – and from – auctions, retailers, e-commerce platforms, and stores worldwide,” the companies said in a statement. “Together, FARFETCH and LUXCLUSIF can leverage these capabilities and positioning to become the global platform for pre-owned luxury for both customers and industry partners.”
Updated (Mar. 8, 2023): In the Annual and Transition Report that it filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Farfetch revealed the terms of the acquisition, “Purchase consideration of $26.8 million was comprised of $7.8 million of cash, $5.9 million of deferred cash or share consideration and $13.1 million of deferred share consideration based on the Farfetch Limited share price as at the acquisition date. The share consideration includes a service condition for certain members of the Luxclusif management team and has been accounted for as post combination remuneration. This did not form part of the purchase price allocation and is expensed.”
eBay announced on November 29 that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Sneaker Con Digital under which it has acquired Sneaker Con’s authentication business, a leading sneaker authenticator with operations in the U.S., U.K, Canada, Australia and Germany. According to a statement from eBay, “The acquisition is an extension of the ongoing collaboration between [itself] and Sneaker Con, which has been critical to powering eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee. The service, which eBay launched in October 2020, offers full vetting and verification of select sneakers bought on the marketplace by a team of Sneaker Con’s industry experts.”
Additionally, the marketplace stated that its “Authenticity Guarantee has significantly changed the way people buy and sell sneakers on [its site], as evidenced by quarter over quarter category growth. In just over a year, more than 1.55 million sneakers have been authenticated globally on eBay.”
Marque Luxury has secured $20 million in funding through an investment by Provident Capital Partners, the Irvine, California-based reseller announced on November 19, saying that the round “follows a period of tremendous growth for MARQUE Luxury, which has opened numerous re-commerce hubs in the United States and several hubs in Asia during the last year and has aggressive plans for future expansion.” The 4-year old company says it will use the new cash to “drive continued business expansion on an operational scale focused mainly in North America,” to “support its omnichannel strategy and allows [it] to generate business activity in the global market on a business-to-business and business-to-business-to-consumer basis.”
In its first acquisition, StockX has bought up Scout, a leading developer of power seller tools that is already serving more than 10,000 sneaker resellers around the world. StockX says that the new technology will enable it to “ramp up inventory” – which is, of course, the lifeblood of resale platforms and the primary driver of consumer demand – thanks to Scout’s “best-in-class automation, inventory management, tracking and integration with marketplaces.” At the same time, StockX states that the move will help its marketplace sellers to “accelerate their businesses,” presumably a bid to attract sellers in an increasingly competitive resale market, where no shortage of other resale players have taken to focusing on pre-owned sneakers and streetwear.
In addition to onboarding Scout’s product, StockX confirmed that it will bring on the company’s team three co-founders and seven employees, who “bring their deep experience as sneaker resellers and developers of inventory,” as aims to scale seller business operations.
Detroit-based StockX, which revealed that it surpassed 6.5 million lifetime buyers and 1 million lifetime sellers in the first half of 2021, has been building out its initially sneaker-focused offerings since its founding in 2016 and expanding internationally. In the wake of its latest funding round, a Series E-1 round that closed in April 2021, the company boasts a valuation of $3.8 billion valuation.
In its first-ever buy-side move, Poshmark announced on October 13 that it has acquired Suede One, an authentication platform that “combines machine learning, computer vision and expert human review to virtually authenticate sneakers,” with Suede One’s team joining Poshmark effective immediately. According to Poshmark, the acquisition “will scale [its] authentication capabilities and accelerate momentum in high-growth secondhand categories, especially sneakers and luxury,” and reflects the secondhand marketplace’s focus on “strategic investments that drive continued platform innovation, accelerate growth in high-growth resale categories and enhance the user experience to attract and retain both buyers and sellers.”
Founded in 2020, Suede One “has built impressive capabilities in virtual authentication that will allow us to deliver tangible benefits to our community, scale our authentication services in a meaningful way, and accelerate our momentum in sneakers as well as luxury goods, two of the fastest-growing categories in the resale space,” according to Poshmark founder and CEO Manish Chandra.
In a release on Wednesday, Poshmark detailed Suede One’s process, revealing that “for popular sneakers such as Jordan 1s and Yeezy 350s, Suede One can automatically authenticate the majority of submissions with greater than 99 percent accuracy, based on internal testing. For other sneaker types, human experts review the submission with help from the company’s proprietary authenticator tool.”
French resale company Vestiaire has raised 178 million euros ($209 million) in a September 22 venture round which included participation from two new investors, SoftBank Group Corp and Generation Investment Management, bringing its valuation to $1.7 billion dollars. To date, Vestiaire has raised $663.3 million, per CrunchBase.
Resale platform Tradesy has raised $67 million in a September 16 Series D round led by led by Foris Ventures, which is Kleiner Perkins head John Doerr’s family office. To date, the company has raised $200.7 million over a series of eight rounds, according to CrunchBase.
Men’s fashion and streetwear-centric marketplace Grailed announced the closing of a $60 million Series B funding round on September 16, which was led by fellow resale player GOAT Group and with participation from Groupe Artémis, along with existing investors Thrive Capital and Index Ventures.
Trove Recommerce, which partners with brands to create online platforms for them to sell used goods, raised $77.5 million in an August 25 Series D round, led by G2 Venture Partners.
Online sneaker and apparel marketplace GOAT Group has raised $195 million in a new funding round, which has “more than doubled its valuation to $3.7 billion.” The round for the 6-year-old Los Angeles-based company, which boasts some 30 million customers across 170 countries, was led by Park West Asset Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Franklin Templeton, Adage Capital Management and Ulysses Management.
In a quest to target Gen-Z consumers (i.e., those born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s), who are driving both social shopping and largescale pushes in sustainability, Etsy announced that it will acquire burgeoning British shopping app Depop for $1.62 billion.
Reseller Treet – which powers brands to set up their own resale sites where buyers and sellers can list and find items – raised $2.8 million in a May 26 seed round with participation from Bling Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Techstars, BAM Ventures, BBG Ventures, Green Meadow, Interlace Ventures, V1.VC and Alante Capital.
Vinted raised 250 million euros ($303 million) in a May 12 Series F round, the Vilnius, Lithuania-founded online resale platform announced. According to a release from Vinted, which got its start in 2008 and boasts some 45 million users, the company “operates in over 10 markets, and has become the largest online C2C marketplace in second-hand fashion across Europe,” and will use the funding from the latest EQT Growth-led round – one that values the resale upstart at $4.3 billion – to expand its operations in Europe and “new geographies,” ramp up its hiring, and improve user experience.
StockX announced the conclusion of a $195 million secondary tender offering on April 8, as well as an additional $60 million in Series E-1 primary shares, boosting the streetwear and sneaker platform’s December 2020 valuation of $2.8 billion by 35 percent, and bringing its total funding to $690 million.
Kering and American investment firm Tiger Global Management led a March 1 Series H funding round that saw secondhand marketplace Vestiaire Collective bring in $216 million in funding, along with existing investors, including its CEO Max Bittner, Vogue’s parent company Condé Nast, and the Eurazeo Group, among others. The deal gives Paris-based Vestiaire “unicorn status” – i.e., puts a $1 billion-plus value on the privately-held company – and “ideally positions it for its next cycle of accelerated growth.”
Second-hand fashion platform Reflaunt raised $2.7 million dollars in a pre-Series A funding round from investors including former Jimmy Choo CEO Pierre Denis and Ganni founder and former CEO Nicolaj Reffstrup, among others, with an aim to “offer a variety of resale models to more leading global brands” and to allow consumers to resell pre-owned products “directly on the brands’ individual e-commerce platforms.”
GOAT Group announced on January 19 that it would welcome a “strategic investment” from Groupe Artemis – the controlling shareholder of Kering – as it “continues its expansion in fashion apparel and new categories.” The undisclosed Artemis investment comes on the heels of a Series E round of $100 million announced in September 2020, which valued the company at $1.75 billion.