Luxury resale platform Rebag secures US$33m

Luxury resale platform, Rebag, has raised an additional $33 million in Series E fundraising, increasing its total funding to $101 million.

Rebag’s Series E investment was led by private equity firm Novator, with current investors General Catalyst and others joining in.

These recent occurrences indicate that the concept of resale is gaining traction in the luxury sector, which has hitherto been more resistive to the concept than those at the lower end of the price spectrum. However, an increasing number of environmentally and financially concerned customers are pushing all aspects of retail toward resale, reshaping the luxury business in the process.

Following a solid year, this current round of funding will position Rebag for continued expansion. Rebag has grown fourfold in the last year in additional categories like fine jewelry and watches, which were added after the company’s 2020 expansion beyond handbags.

Following the launch of Clair AI and Clair Trade, the platform’s Clair Technology Suite, which was built in-house to offer transparency to the luxury resale business, has helped drive growth with a 3X increase in sourcing. Clair AI immediately detects and values bags from the top 50 luxury brands, making the listing procedure for sellers easier; and the Clair Trade trade-in programme allows customers to buy and sell products in one transaction, only paying for the items they want to keep.

Since the launch of Clair Trade, one out of every five customers has also traded products to Rebag. In a recent episode of the Retail Remix podcast, Rebag’s Chief Client Officer Geronimo Chala discussed how the company is establishing a “client loyalty loop” using solutions like these.

Rebag also intends to use the new funds to expand its tech-enabled brick-and-mortar operation. Rebag has changed its traditional retail model in the last year by incorporating tech touch points around the store to provide customers with an immersive retail experience in a more compact shape.

Customers can utilize a self-service kiosk at each “Clair Corner” to get a quick price quote on the item they’re selling using the Clair by Rebag software package. In December 2020, the firm opened its first “Rebag Bar” in New York City, a smaller version of its typical store that provides a personalized digital purchasing journey as an entrance to the Rebag ecosystem. Greenwich, Conn., and Beverly Hills, Calif., have just opened stores, with more planned for 2022.

Charles Gorra, founder and chief executive of Rebag, said that their mission has been to drive the circular economy and provide additional transparency in the resale market since the company’s founding. This fresh round of funding will enable them to further develop their technology and deploy features that democratize information access and create an ecosystem that benefits both customers and retailers.