Resale technology pioneer Reflaunt announced a Series A funding round of $11 million led by Ventech China, Global Blue and Bombyx Growth Fund. Early investors such as Swarovski’s creative director Giovanna Battaglia, American retail conglomerate Madaluxe Group, Italian fashion group Piquadro and TLF Ventures also participated in the round.
Reflaunt has developed an industry-leading resale technology solution chosen by luxury fashion brands like Balenciaga and retailers like NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, Harvey Nichols and THE OUTNET among others. The key to its success has been the creation of a fully integrated journey where customers can seamlessly resell their past purchases without ever leaving the brand’s ecosystem, and an unprecedented distribution network bringing together more than 100 million second-hand shoppers worldwide through an integration with resale channels and retailers. Fashion brands and retailers can rely on Reflaunt’s global operations and resale infrastructure to take back their customers’ entire luxury wardrobe, inspect and value every item, have it sold again, and boost customer loyalty. Ultimately, Reflaunt helps fashion brands take back control of their second-hand market and reduce radically the amount of textile waste ending up in landfills- this has sparked the attention of leading institutions like the World Economic Forum, which selected the start-up for their Circulars Accelerators program earlier this year.
By joining forces with Global Blue, leader in Tax Free Shopping and omnichannel technology solutions, Reflaunt will be able to deepen the connection with hundreds of luxury brands in Global Blue’s portfolio.
“We have integrated the resale experience in the brand’s ecosystem, which allows us to record the product’s digital ID at the moment of check-out and foster a seamless resell-in- a-click experience when the customer is ready to give the product a second life” – says Stephanie Crespin, co-founder and CEO of Reflaunt – “We are excited to work with Global Blue and their portfolio of clients on physical retail executions, making Reflaunt a gateway to endless after-use destinations for each product in the market, be it resale, repair, recycling and more.”
“The resale market is one of the fastest growing sectors in luxury, and customer demand for circular fashion is strong. Our partnership with Reflaunt continues to place us at the forefront of innovation for retail growth areas, enabling us to constantly offer new solutions that empower our merchants to capture the opportunities these fast-growing new sectors represent.” – Tomas Mostany, SVP Strategy & Chief Product Officer, Global Blue.
In the resale industry, Reflaunt is rapidly becoming the underpinning technology that optimizes the match of supply and demand: resale channels in Reflaunt’s distribution network gain access to a highly curated selection of pre-loved inventory that reflects their assortment strategy and their own customers’ shopping preferences. Today, Reflaunt works closely with leading resale marketplaces such as Tradesy, GOAT, Rebelle, The Vintage Bar, HEWI, Vestiaire Collective and Carousell, while also helping well-established retailers like Miinto and YOOX build a competitive pre-loved fashion offering on their own channels.
Consumers are rushing to the resale services offered by Reflaunt clients. They value the opportunity to unlock value from their entire wardrobe and receive instant reward for the best pieces, compared to other solutions that are largely restricted to best-selling categories like handbags due to the solution provider’s smaller distribution networks. The customer conversion with the service is phenomenal, more than 70% choose to reinvest their earnings into a new order with the same retailer, and over their lifetime they spend 4- 7x more than average customers.
ABOUT REFLAUNT
Reflaunt is a technology company that brings Resale-as-a-Service to fashion brands and multi-brand retailers. With Reflaunt’s leading technology solutions, fashion retailers can empower their own customers to resell or recycle their past purchases in a click, directly on their ecommerce platform. Reflaunt equips brands and retailers with resale ecommerce and tailor-made branded marketplace technology and operations solutions as well as access to its largest global network of more than 30 resale marketplace partners and more than 100 million second-hand customers. Reflaunt’s mission is to build a world of positive consumption allowing luxury brands to enter with efficient circular models and motivate consumers to see fashion’s long-lasting value, thereby extending the life of a product and providing invaluable opportunities to re-engage with their customers.
ABOUT GLOBAL BLUE
Global Blue pioneered the concept of Tax Free Shopping 40 years ago. Through continuous innovation, we have become the leading strategic technology and payments partner, empowering retailers to improve their performance and shoppers to enhance their experience.
Global Blue offers innovative solutions in three different fields:
● Tax Free Shopping: Helping retailers at over 300,000 points of sale to efficiently manage 35 million Tax Free Shopping transactions a year, thanks to its fully integrated in-house technology platform. Meanwhile, its industry-leading digital Tax Free shopper solutions create a better, more seamless customer experience
● Payments services: Providing a full suite of foreign exchange and Payments technology solutions that allow acquirers, hotels and retailers to offer value-added services and improve the customer experience during 31 million payment transactions a year at 130,000 points of interaction
● Complementary RetailTech: Offering new technology solutions to retailers, including digital receipts and eCommerce returns, that can be easily integrated with their core systems and allow them to optimise and digitalise their processes throughout the omni-channel customer journey, both in-store and online
In addition, our data and advisory services offer a strategic advisory to help retailers identify opportunities for growth, while our shopper experience and engagement solutions provide data-driven solutions to increase footfall, convert footfall to revenue and enhance performance.
For more information, visit http://www.globalblue.com/corporate
ABOUT VENTECH CHINA
Ventech China is based in Shanghai, managing 4 USD funds and 2 RMB funds and focusing on early-stage investments in digital consumption, intelligent innovation, and big data area. Ventech China’s investment portfolio includes Jumei, Jimu, Secoo, AIG,Keep, WonderFull, Blued, Super Monkey, Summer Farm and etc. Ventech China is dedicated to growing together with innovative startups and help them to become global leaders in their fields.
ABOUT BOMBYX GROWTH FUND
Bombyx is a private equity growth-fund that supports European and Asian technology companies with capital, industrial expertise, and an extensive network of contacts for sustainable development.
Bombyx works together with strong entrepreneurs that have developed innovative and sustainable textile related solutions applied in primary sectors, like fashion & retail, healthcare & medical, security, construction, energy, aerospace & mobility. The partners behind Bombyx have been active in the textile industry and in private equity for more than 200 years combined and are backed by institutional investors.