Yahoo Finance Tradesy Nabs Another $67 Million, Hires Former Ebay and SoftBank Execs as Resale Takes Off
Resale marketplace Tradesy nabs an additional $67 million in funding, bringing total funding up to $145 million.
With new talent like former Ebay exec Amy Gershkoff Bolles as Tradesy’s chief operating officer and Jeffrey Housenbold (who previously led the Vision Fund at SoftBank) as board chairman, founder and chief executive officer Tracy DiNunzio is ramping up Tradesy’s mission to “make everything in your closet liquid and sellable.”
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The company now ranks among some of the top-funded private resale companies along with Goat Group and Vestiaire Collective.
Tradesy, now a fully remote workplace with 140 employees, was founded in 2012 in Los Angeles as a technology-first, peer-to-peer resale marketplace with what DiNunzio calls a “slow-growth, sustainable” mind-set. But the pandemic sped up business, in many ways — especially in terms of supply.
“Our new listings grew 50 percent year-over-year in 2020, versus 2019. Then in the first half of 2021, our new listings grew by another 116 percent,” she said. “Our ethos is to build things that are durable and last, both in the clothes we sell and the company we create. But with all of this new supply, it makes sense for us to do some growth marketing. It’s another reason we brought Amy [Gershkoff Bolles] in and we raised the capital.”
DiNunzio attributes Tradesy’s growth amid the pandemic to the ease of listing as well as the no-touch listing option compared to more high-touch consignment. Now, with the injection of new funding, the company will expand its category offerings, and scale out data-driven growth marketing and technology features that allow sellers to list and promote their items more efficiently.
Among the recent tech roll-outs was the addition of inventory depth and variants — which for resale is a bit of a misnomer given how platforms stress the uniqueness of one-off finds — but it’s all the more important for larger sellers who have to manage multiple sizes and color-ways of product.
“It’s the complete removal of the guts of the marketplace,” DiNunzio said on the rethinking of marketplace selling tools.
For More, See:
The Resale Market: Who’s Playing, Who’s Leading, Who’s Emerging
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