Dive Brief:
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Curtsy, an apparel, accessories and shoe resale platform, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures, the company announced on Thursday.
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The recent funding will allow the company to hire more employees and gain more share in the resale market, according to the release. In October 2020, users sold 85,000 items via the platform, a 35% jump since September, the company said.
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The company's go-to-market strategy was focusing on Gen Z women, aged 15 to 30 years old. The company began as a platform for sorority women to rent dresses to one another and went on to be accepted to the tech incubator Y Combinator, where the company switched tracks to selling and buying items, according to the release.
Dive Insight:
Curtsy seeks to differentiate itself by simplifying the selling process for casual sellers to engage with the platform, the company noted in its announcement. The platform provides branded supplies for sellers to package their items from home, helps them schedule a USPS pickup via the app, and uses machine learning and human review to help sellers merchandise their listings.
But as Curtsy seeks to gain a larger share of the emerging resale market, its sizable competitors are also eyeing their growth potential. Per a report from ThredUp, the resale market is predicted to reach $44 billion by 2029. ThredUp has partnered with several major retailers recently, including Macy's, J.C. Penney and, in May, with Walmart to sell used clothing, accessories, footwear and handbags for women and children. Earlier this week, Poshmark, another player in the mobile resale space, announced its IPO of 6.6 million shares at $42 per share.
As part of its effort to simplify reselling for its customers, Curtsy suggests prices, auto-generates details such as category and brand, improves listing images and removes spam. EBay similarly introduced a tool in March 2020 to refine sellers' listing images. Verification has also been a problem for reselling platforms, causing some, like eBay and Verishop, to review products or brands before making them available on their platforms.
