Yahoo Finance Online vintage clothes store Vinted raises €250m
Vinted, a Lithuanian-based online marketplace for second-hand clothes, raised €250m (£214m, $303m) in a Series F funding as it looks to take advantage of the growing trend to shop on the internet amid the pandemic.
Vinted allows its users to buy, sell and swap second-hand clothing items and accessories.
The investment, which gave the company a pre-money valuation of €3.5bn, was led by EQT Growth, with participation from Vinted’s previous investors Accel, Burda Principal Investments, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sprints Capital.
In November 2019, Vinted raised €128m in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and also became Lithuania’s first unicorn (a startup valued at over $1bn).
Vinted will use the proceeds to expand into new regions, as well as improve its user experience by investing into trust and safety, payments, shipping and infrastructure and introducing new tools and features.
It also plans to hire more people — in the last 12 months it has already increased staff by around 75% to more than 700.
Read more: Supermarket chain Asda to start selling second-hand clothes in shops
The company, citing a report by data company Statista, said the global apparel market is forecast to reach $2.2tn in revenue by 2025 and the trend to buy second-hand has grown rapidly in recent years.
“This has continued during the pandemic as consumers increasingly look for ways to shop that fit with their new work-from-home routines and their efforts to make more conscious buying choices,” it said.
Thomas Plantenga, CEO, said: “We are contributing to a seismic shift in the second-hand fashion market, enabling more sustainable, socially-responsible shopping habits.”
“We want to replicate the success we’ve built in our existing European markets in new geographies.”
When the pandemic first hit Europe, Vinted said it paused operations in several markets to develop new features that would enable members to trade safely and mitigate potential impact on shipping networks. It said it recorded strong growth in 2020.
EQT Growth Partner Carolina Brochado, who will also join Vinted’s board, said: "Vinted is the perfect example of EQT Growth's strategy of backing fast-growing European tech champions that tap into several macro trends, such as the increasing consumer demand for sustainability and continued penetration of online channels within fashion.”
Vinted has 45 million users spanning 13 markets in Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium and Spain.
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