Branded resale player Archive announces a $8 million funding with industry vets as angel investors.
The latest round is led by Bain Capital Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing the company’s total funding up to nearly $10 million. Among the angel investors include industry notables like Alex Bolen, chief executive officer of Oscar de la Renta; Shan Lyn-Ma, cofounder of wedding registry firm Zola, and Marigay McKee, former president of Saks Fifth Avenue, among others.
The financing follows initial investments from New York-based venture capital firm FirstMark, Bain, and the founders of Warby Parker, Allbirds and Harry’s, to boot.
Archive counts M.M.LaFleur, Filippa K, Dagne Dover and, most recently, Oscar de la Renta in its resale camp.
Believing resale to be a key driver to both acquisition and retention of its customers, Bolen said: “We’ve achieved this goal with ‘Encore by Oscar de la Renta’ by utilizing both Archive’s superior technology and the ‘can-do’ approach of Emily [Gittins] and the Archive team. Their solutions, including auction functionality and ‘charitable donation’ optionality, provide Oscar de la Renta with a unique customer offering.”
Related Galleries
Emily Gittins, Archive’s cofounder and CEO told WWD how the next wave of resale will be led by brands, echoing a sentiment brewing in the resale space for some time.
“As you know, the resale market is accelerating very quickly. There’s a huge opportunity [for brands] to be part of this growth and get that potential engagement with their customers,” Gittins said. “This fundraise is about fueling our growth to new brands.”
The pace is quick indeed. Just last week, U.K.-based rental platform By Rotation dipped into resale, while earlier this month resale start-up Twig inked $35 million in Series A. Meanwhile, existing platforms like Rebag (stoking luxury handbag resale in the U.S.) are revamping loyalty programs.
Archive’s latest funding will go toward that initial marketing drive, as well as hiring and expansion needs to support Archive’s technology capabilities. New product developments will also be in the pipeline to “streamline” the selling experience.
Gittins shared metrics on Archive thus far, with 75 percent of sellers choosing store credit with brands and following a “trade-in and trade-up approach,” going on to spend three-times the original purchase price on the brand’s own channels.
The vast majority of sellers are new to the platform, but sellers are in hot demand across resale platforms. While Archive does not share overall community size (or those customers that are actively engaged in its selling flywheel), Gittins said M.M.La Fleur, its debut brand partner, had 1,000 product listings. Further, she spoke of the opportunity to expand into a more “holistic offering for brands,” offering not just customer peer-to-peer resale (which is dependent on an active selling community) but also warehouse tools, takeback models and the like.
Competitors in the space already include companies like Trove, Reflaunt, Recurate, Treet and Kept Sku — all of which are aiming to win brand buy-in with their services.
Past the initial sign-on with brand partners, Gittins said Archive acts as a “thought partner” for brands looking to build out their whole end of life strategy. Leaning on her Stanford master’s degree in environment and resources, Gittins said she is a firm believer in life-cycle assessments and that “Archive will definitely get to the point where we can do that.”