Luxury resale site raises $65 million

French luxury resale site, Vestiaire Collective, has raised an additional €40 million ($65 million) in funding from new and existing shareholders.

The round, led by French investment bank Bpifrance and Vestiaire Collective CEO Max Bittner, will be used to develop innovative and sustainable tech solutions for the fashion industry and to fuel the company’s international growth and hiring. It represents a vote of confidence in resale fashion and the circular economy.

Vestiaire Collective, an online marketplace for buying and selling pre-owned luxury fashion, was founded by Fanny Moizant and Sophie Hersan in France in 2009. Over the past 10 years, the platform has benefited from consumers’ growing interest in sustainable fashion, and it now caters to a global audience.

Seventy-nine per cent of transactions come from cross-border purchases, according to the company, and gross merchandise volume [a sales metric used by marketplaces] grew 140 per cent in Asia in Q2 of FY19.

The site recently launched in several new markets, including Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Brazil and Mexico. It has been operating in Australia since 2018.

The latest raise, led by Bpifrance and Vestiaire Collective CEO Max Bittner, will be used to further this international growth by expanding its recruitment drive.

Existing shareholders including Eurazeo growth, Vitruvian Partners, Idinvest Partners and Balderton Capital also re-invested in the latest financing round.

Since Bittner’s appointment last year, the company has successfully recruited 120 new talents from more than 20 nationalities across six offices, with a specific emphasis on growing the tech and data teams.

“I am personally very excited to scale the business and continue to revolutionise the fashion industry together with the co-founders Fanny Moizant and Sophie Hersan and the rest of the team,” Bittner said in a statement released on Friday.

“We want to build an international tech and data-first company, leveraging Vestiaire Collective’s incredible brand and fashion DNA. We would like to thank Bpifrance and our existing shareholders for their amazing support.”

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