Vestiaire Collective raises €40 million, targets expansion in Asia, Middle East, South America

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jun 20, 2019

French second-hand fashion e-tailer Vestiaire Collective has announced the completion of a successful funding round worth €40 million with BPI France and Vestiaire Collective’s CEO, Maximilian Bittner. The capital will be invested in boosting the company’s technology solutions and accelerating its international deployment.

According to Vestiaire Collective, 79% of the site’s current transactions are cross-border ones, via its community of 8 million buyers across some 50 countries. Vestiaire Collective plans to expand in Taiwan, the UAE, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Asia, where the e-tailer generated a 140% increase in sales in the second quarter, is expected to be the geographical priority.

On the technology side, the company announced the forthcoming launch of new, innovative solutions based on digital metrics, “to enable its worldwide community, as well as labels and distributors, to promote sustainable, circular consumption.”

According to Bittner, the goal is to “build an international corporation reliant on digital technology and data analysis, and continue to tap the amazing fashion DNA of Vestiaire Collective.” An approach that proved convincing for French public investment bank BPI France, according to Charlotte Corbaz, in charge of equity investments for the bank. Existing investors Eurazeo Growth, Vitruvian Partners, Idinvest Partners and Balderton Capital also took part in the funding round.

In April, Vestiaire Collective revised the way in which its commissions are calculated, notably introducing a series of ceilings. The objective was to address a recurrent criticism made to the site by sellers.

Vestiaire Collective was launched in 2009, and currently claims to carry a range of over 900,000 articles, with 3,500 new ones introduced daily, and a community of 8 million buyers. One of the site’s exclusive features is the ability to verify the authenticity of the items on sale through resident experts at its Paris, London, New York, Milan, Berlin and Hong Kong offices.