A Lithuanian second-hand fashion online marketplace Vinted, raised 128 million euros in an equity funding round, valuing the company at over 1 billion euros and becoming the first unicorn in the country. The round was led by new investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers including Sprints Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Accel and Burda Principal Investments.
“We are approaching an inflection point in the market for second-hand fashion; consumers around the world are becoming increasingly conscious of their buying choices,” said Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Vinted. “We’re grateful to our new and existing backers who believe in our mission to make second-hand the first choice worldwide. Today’s investment is an endorsement of the future market opportunity and of our approach to maximise value generation for our members.”
According to Vinted, this latest round of funding will be used to invest in product development and to accelerate the company’s rapid growth across Europe, through investments in technologies, strengthening trust, safety, and member-support services on the platform as well as connecting its strong pan-European member base, which currently numbers 25 million.
Vinted’s mission is to make second-hand fashion the first choice, worldwide. It offers over 180 million second-hand fashion items and provides great chances to sell and buy quickly, safely, and easily across 11 European markets. In 2019 alone, 1.3 billion euros of gross merchandise volume is expected to be transacted on Vinted – going back into the pockets of its members.
“We want to enable people to sell faster and buy from a wider pool of products than any other platform in Europe – and at the lowest possible cost to our members,” continued Mr Plantenga. “We hold firm to our belief that making them happy will power the growth of our member base, and we look forward to investing in advanced technology to make our proposition even more powerful for them. This funding will therefore directly benefit our members, driving improvements in product, technology, support, trust, and safety solutions.”
Vinted was founded in 2008 in Lithuania by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas, confronting an increasingly common problem in modern Europe – wardrobe overload. Since then, the company has successfully scaled its business across Europe and is well-positioned to accelerate this growth, responding to a growing consumer appeal of second-hand fashion worldwide, with a market opportunity estimated at 13 billion euros across Europe.
Photo: courtesy of Vinted
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