Vinted, Europe’s largest online C2C marketplace for second-hand fashion, has raised €128 million in an equity funding round, valuing the company at over €1 billion. The round was led by investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers including Accel, Sprints Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and Burda Principal Investments.
Vinted’s mission is to make second-hand fashion the first choice worldwide. It has 25 million members across 11 markets in Europe and currently has over 180 million second-hand fashion items listed for sale. In 2019, €1.3 billion of gross merchandise volume is expected to be transacted on Vinted, the company said in a press release.Vinted, Europe's largest online C2C marketplace for second-hand fashion, has raised €128 million in an equity funding round, valuing the company at over €1 billion. The round was led by investor, Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from existing backers including Accel, Sprints Capital, Insight Venture Partners, and Burda Principal Investments.#
The latest round of funding will be used to invest in product development and to accelerate Vinted’s rapid growth across Europe. It will enable the company to double headcount in the product and technology teams, invest in technologies to continue to improve the value proposition for members, further strengthen trust, safety, and member-support services on the platform, and continue to grow and connect its strong pan-European member base, which currently numbers 25 million.
“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. 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,” Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Vinted said.
“At Lightspeed, we look for outlier management teams building generational companies. We’ve been impressed by the team’s ability to build an incredible product and value proposition for their community, and adapt and expand their business along the way. Vinted is defining its market and has built a global brand in C2C commerce and communities. We’re proud to partner with Vinted and leverage our global platform and resources to help them continue to build on their success and achieve their goals,” Brad Twohig, Silicon Valley-based Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners said.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)