Gen Z women's apparel rental app Curtsy raises $11 million in new funding round

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jan 25, 2021

Curtsy, a clothing, shoes, and accessories rental app targeted at Gen Z women between the ages of 15 to 30, has raised $11 million in Series A funding led by Index Ventures. 

In a press release, the company said the funding will enable Curtsy to scale, build out a team, and continue to gain market share by simplifying resale for the casual seller.

Launched in 2015 and first trialed at the University of Mississippi, Curtsy was founded as an app for women in sororities to rent dresses from each other. After finding success at the university, Curtsy applied and was accepted to Y Combinator -- an American seed money startup accelerator. Later, the app expanded its presence in campuses across the country and launched shipping in 2018 to allow rentals between schools. 

According to the company, Curtsy has grown tenfold since 2019 and is facilitating tens of millions of dollars in transaction volume. In October 2020, Curtsy facilitated the sale of 85,000 items, marking an increase of 35% since September.

“The giants in the clothing resale space have been around for a while and haven’t done a great job appealing to casual sellers or keeping up with the times,” said David Oates, Curtsy co-founder. “Most apps focus on closet clean out, ignoring the Gen Z use case of rotating their wardrobe.”

Damir Becirovic of Index Ventures added: "Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce, first pioneered by Ebay, continues to be unbundled. Dedicated platforms are rising that have a tighter relationship with their users and that facilitate more frictionless ways to transact a certain type of good.

"Curtsy has accomplished exactly this for young women and their desire to buy and sell clothing. Never before have we seen such a strong overlap between buyers and sellers on a consumer-to-consumer marketplace. We believe the incredible love for Curtsy is indicative of a large marketplace in the making." 

The new funding for Curtsy comes as many of its larger competitors see significant growth. In February of 2020, The RealReal reported a 57% increase in fourth-quarter revenues and announced a new store opening in San Francisco, while ThredUp revealed in October that it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the United States.