Fleek, a London-based B2B marketplace for wholesale second-hand fashion, has reportedly secured US $ 20.4 million to grow its second-hand clothing platform. Fleek reportedly ships 2.5 million second-hand clothing items from 1,000 wholesale suppliers to about 10,000 resellers and retailers across 70 countries.
The start-up was started by friends Sanket Agarwal, a software engineer who worked at Google, and Abhi Arora, who holds an MBA from Cambridge. The two planned to start a marketplace where retailers could buy products online and wholesalers could sell online more easily. Fleek would take a cut of the money that purchasers paid wholesalers.
Arora stated, “The subcontinent is one of the largest importers and exporters of secondhand clothing, it turned out. Both Sanket and I were raised in India. We are able to communicate in the language. Our relationship with these wholesalers was greatly aided by that.”
Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, and others participated in the company’s Series A financing. The financing is received at the end of a year when many platforms that sell second-hand clothing struggle to make a profit.
As of 2023, the second-hand clothing market in America was valued at around US $ 43 billion, and through 2028, it is expected to expand at a rate of roughly 11 per cent annually.
