Dive Brief:
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Goat Group has agreed to acquire streetwear resale marketplace Grailed, the sneaker platform said Monday. Terms are undisclosed.
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The merged entity will boast more than 50 million members in 170 countries. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in about 45 days.
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The deal follows Goat’s investment in Grailed in September 2021, according to a Goat press release.
Dive Insight:
Goat Group has been chasing both growth and diversification, and taking over Grailed helps on both counts.
Goat, which attracted a $100 million investment from Foot Locker three years ago, began with sneaker resale but as of 2019 also sells apparel and accessories, including new merchandise from major fashion brands. Order volume more than doubled in the last 12 months, per Monday’s press release.
“While Goat started simply as an online resale platform for ‘Hype’ sneakers targeted at a largely-male base of ‘sneakerheads,’ the business has evolved into much more than that,” Wedbush analysts said in March following meetings with executives, who said that “growing internationally will be key.”
As a private company, Goat Group doesn’t typically release its sales performance, but as of mid-2021 the company reported $2 billion in gross merchandise value in the previous 12 months, Wedbush also noted.
In a statement, Goat Group co-founder and CEO Eddy Lu noted Grailed’s strength in men’s fashion resale and said the company will build on that. The merger will further accelerate growth in the apparel and accessories market at both companies, “providing a deeper catalog of products and an expanded global community of enthusiasts,” Goat also said in its release.
Grailed co-founder and CEO Arun Gupta in a statement said that Goat Group stood out “as the right partner to help make fashion more accessible to the global style community.”
