On April 11th, 2021 Grailed, a fashion buying, and selling platform, announced that it has secured $60M in Series B funding led by GOAT Group.
This strategic deal will allow Grailed to improve its technology and grow its community of customers. The investment will also help Grailed further its mission of creating the leading online and in-person destination for buying, consigning and selling the best in fashion.
In this article, we will discuss the details of the investment and its implications.
Overview of Grailed
Grailed is an online marketplace founded in 2014 that specialises in the buying and selling of gently used streetwear, luxury fashion, and other apparel. Grailed quickly gained a dedicated base of users who rely on it as a reliable source of buying and selling goods. Through its main Marketplace and its hypeMarket, users can purchase a wide range of items from pre-owned to limited releases from high-end designers.
Recently, Grailed announced that it has secured $60 million in Series B funding led by the GOAT Group. This funding primarily focuses on expanding logistics operations, including curriculum launches and upgrades to core product capabilities. For both buyers and sellers alike, this investment will enable Grailed to create more efficient solutions for the authentication process, payment processing methods and more—ultimately resulting in customers having an easier time conducting business within the marketplace.
Moreover, the funding will support Grailed’s goal to build its status as a leader in modern luxury fashion by investing in curation technologies, content commerce strategies and partnerships with top luxury brands. With this new influx of capital, Grailed plans to expand its team with industry veterans while creating new ways for customers to discover clothes they love at affordable prices—making sure their users get the most out of their experience on the platform.
Overview of GOAT Group
GOAT Group (Global Online Athletic Trading) is a leader in the online marketplace for buying and selling sneakers, apparel and premium goods to consumers worldwide. Founded in 2015, GOAT Group has quickly become one of the most successful digital marketplaces of its kind with operations across 11 countries, including the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and Australia. The company’s brands include GOAT, Flight Club and SNS, giving customers access to over 800 exclusive releases and more than 3 million historically relevant sneaker styles.
As part of its commitment to providing a superior customer experience, GOAT Group has partnered with some of the most renowned design firms in the world. The company recently announced a major collaboration with Y-3 by Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto and special edition releases from brands like Kith and Supreme New York.
As part of their mission to expand their offerings into other areas within fashion, GOAT Group have now led a $60M Series B funding round in Grailed: an online marketplace for luxury menswear based out of New York City founded by Arun Gupta in 2014. Through this investment from the GOAT Group, Grailed are expanding their operations into Europe, launching new international sales channels and improving existing ones; aiming to transform them into more engaging experiences for customers across different regions such as North America & Europe as well as Asia & Pacific.
Background
Grailed is an online marketplace for buying and selling luxury fashion items, founded in 2013. They officially launched in 2014 and have since seen rapid growth. The investment community has recognized this growth, with GOAT Group leading a $60M Series B round of funding into Grailed in mid-2020.
This announcement solidifies Grailed’s position as a mainstay in the fashion resale space.
History of Grailed
Grailed is a peer-to-peer online marketplace created in 2012 that makes buying and selling luxury menswear easy and accessible. It has become one of the largest dedicated destinations for men’s fashion, stocking 8 million products from over 10,000 brands just two years after its founding.
Aiming to be the platform of choice for top luxury goods, Grailed has gained rapid adoption as an authoritative destination for men’s fashion by partnering with leading brands such as Supreme, YEEZY, Louis Vuitton and Gucci. It features tools like product curation through “grails”—an offering indicating a particularly high demand item—to help customers find what they are looking for more quickly.
In July 2019, Grailed closed $60M in Series B funding led by the GOAT Group (formerly Flight Club), with participation from YCombinator Continuity Fund and previous investors Thrive Capital and former Google Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani.
History of GOAT Group
GOAT Group (formerly Flight Club) first entered the e-commerce scene in 2005, initially as a consignment store for sneakers. In 2015, Flight Club rebranded itself as GOAT Group, uniting its two existing platforms – GOAT and Flight Club – under a single parent company.
Since then, the company has seen significant success as one of the leading fashion e-commerce marketplaces, with consumers and brands turning to GOAT for their high-end fashion needs. By 2018, the LA-based firm had raised a total of $97.6 million in venture funding and boasted over 12 million members worldwide.
Today, GOAT Group is home to some of the industry’s biggest retailers and first-tier brands. As a result, both consumers and brands can access unparalleled product selection at their fingertips – with over 1 million authentic products available on each platform across Flight Club and its sister brand, ONEWORLD Sneakers.
In 2020, GOAT Group further solidified its mark on the fashion world when it announced that it had closed an $60M Series B round – led by private equity firm Accel — bringing its lifetime funding total to nearly $160M. With this round of financing from Accel — which has backed some of tech’s most successful businesses such as Dropbox and Slack — the go-to marketplace for luxury apparel secured its position as a leader in digital retail innovation for years to come.
GOAT GROUP LEADS $60M SERIES B FUNDING IN GRAILED
Grailed, the online marketplace for luxury fashion and streetwear, announced on Thursday it has secured $60 million in series B funding led by GOAT Group, the holding company of GOAT, a popular sneaker resale platform.
This funding round will help Grailed expand its reach and accelerate its growth strategy.
Let’s take a look at some more details of the deal.
Amount of the Investment
Grailed announced on May 28th, 2020 that it had secured $60 million in Series B funding led by GOAT Group. GOAT Group is an e-commerce platform for lifestyle and luxury sneakers. The type of financing was equity funding and the round also included investors such as Battery Ventures, Advisor Growth Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and Lead Edge Capital. This funding will help Grailed to continue to grow its business in the online fashion resale space.
Grailed is an online marketplace that allows consumers to buy and sell second hand designer clothing including streetwear brands like Supreme and Gucci. The company was founded in 2014 with a mission to make fashionable clothes more accessible by allowing users to buy and sell their luxury items on the platform. This Series B investment will be used to expand Grailed’s product offering, hire additional staff, launch new features, expand into more global markets, partner with major brands for collaborations, and more.
Terms of the Agreement
Grailed, an online consignment platform focused on the menswear and streetwear categories, has announced that it has secured $60 million in its Series B financing round led by GOAT Group. This investment brings Grailed’s total funding to date to more than $90 million.
The terms of the agreement are not currently available but Grailed did provide some details. The $60M will be used to support fueled growth and expansion, continue brand expansion and community building, and pursue strategic acquisitions. In addition, Grailed is expected to use the investment to expand its platform into additional apparel categories such as womenswear while continuing its focus on menswear and streetwear.
GOAT Group’s Craig Smith said, “We are thrilled to partner with Jared [Kushner] and his team on this next leg of the journey for Grailed. We deeply respect what they have built over these past few years and we look forward to supporting their continued growth.”
Grailed CEO Nathan Paski added “Over the last five years our team has worked tirelessly to nurture an engaged community of shoppers looking for great apparel from both emerging brands as well as vintage pieces from established fashion houses. We’re grateful for GOAT Group’s belief in us, which will help us continue innovating on our platform with new features, drive more value for our users, and grow into a comprehensive destination for fashion shoppers worldwide.”
Impact of the Investment
Grailed’s recent investment from GOAT Group, a leading digital marketplace for authentic sneakers and apparel, has enabled the company to expand its reach and impact.
The $60M Series B funding round, which GOAT Group led, allows Grailed to invest in its product and technology, grow its community, and drive innovation in the secondhand fashion space.
This article will explore the implications of this latest investment for Grailed and its users.
Benefits for Grailed
The investment of $60 million will provide Grailed with the financial resources to develop its app-based technology, global expansion and business operations. This will further the brand’s mission to make pre-owned fashion more accessible and affordable. In addition, by leveraging the expertise of GOAT Group, which includes GOAT, Flight Club, Superbalist and Hypebeast, Grailed can benefit from their industry knowledge, global insights, understanding of modern consumer trends, and their expansive supplier’s network.
Furthermore, this strategic partnership also allows Grailed to expand its platform beyond the U.S., Europe, Japan and Hong Kong for a more global presence in markets such as China and South Korea. Additionally, this new source of capital strengthens efforts in developing innovative functionality for the app for an optimised user experience.
Finally, with this additional capital infusion, Grailed plans to further prioritise emerging youth brands by elevating indie labels from niche local followings globally so more people can access them, making it easier for consumers to find their ideal style at an affordable price point all within one digital hub.
Benefits for GOAT Group
GOAT Group, an e-commerce platform for rare and vintage fashion, has led Grailed’s series B funding. The $60 million investment will help further grow the company and its marketplace and accelerate its rapidly expanding business.
GOAT Group’s investment provides many benefits for both Grailed and GOAT Group. For Grailed, the funding gives them access to more resources to build out their technology ecosystem and expand their offerings to provide more personalization capabilities. The company also aims to explore international expansion through this new financing.
On GOAT Group’s side, they can look forward to having a 20% stake in the company combined with a seat on Grailed’s board of directors. The financing will allow them to work closely with the team at Grailed and benefit from their expertise in building a successful online business like Grailed. Additionally, they can further strengthen relationships between two teams in product development, marketing partnerships, data sharing and promotional activities that could lead to cross-promotional opportunities for each platform.
Overall, this investment is beneficial for both parties involving Grailed (current founders included) and GOAT Group, who together have committed over $87M into this round of funding — a healthy injection for either team involved into what is sure to be an exciting venture moving forward.
Conclusion
The conclusion is that the investment led by the GOAT Group in the Grailed platform is an exciting milestone for the company, as it has gained more resources and exposure to continue to advance.
The $60M Series B Funding is a boon for Grailed and can potentially lead to greater success in the future. This is a great example of how a startup can receive a boost in capital and exposure thanks to the support of an investor.
Summary of the Deal
Grailed, an online marketplace for menswear and apparel, has secured a $60M Series B funding round led by the GOAT Group. The investment will help Grailed to expand its platform, enabling it to reach more customers and grow its business. This is the largest venture capital financing round in the company’s history.
The investment will be used to develop innovative tools on the platform that allow users to discover new items, engage more deeply in content, and shop confidently. It will also enable Grailed to develop new product offerings such as marketplaces for children’s apparel and music merchandising industry.
The GOAT Group, which owns retail brands across categories including fashion and lifestyle products and products related to basketball such as sneakers from leading brands, led this Series B investment round with participation from Union Square Ventures, Greycroft Partners and Altimeter Capital. These strategic investments reflect Grailed’s commitment to long-term growth for the business by seeking out investors who share a vision of building an intuitive shopping platform for men’s fashion.
By leveraging this additional capital along with its current operations plan, Grailed plans to continue developing its technology-driven platform to make shopping for men’s apparel quicker, easier and more personalised than ever before.
Future Outlook for Grailed and GOAT Group
The future looks bright for Grailed and the GOAT Group following this $60M Series B investment. In its official announcement, Grailed highlighted that the new capital infusion would be used to increase their reach, influence and offerings within their respective marketplaces. This includes a greater focus on mobile development, enhanced product search and discoverability, better curation experiences, increased user acquisition efforts and expanded product offering options. It will also look to increase its presence in more regions across the globe.
Additionally, they plan to use some of the funding to bolster Grailed’s technology platform team and new acquisitions. Together with GOAT Group’s technology expertise in scaling eCommerce business models, Grailed may be able to further promote itself as one of the industry leaders in second-hand apparel marketplace applications.
As for GOAT Group specifically, this investment advances its long-term goals to become a “one-stop shop” for everything sneakers and streetwear by continuing to invest in core tech expertise that can provide a global platform for exploring products in multiple markets as well as establishing themselves further within the luxury secondhand fashion sector. As this investment signals future growth opportunities between both companies, it remains yet to be seen how much impact these two heavy hitters will have on the ultra competitive market segments they operate within.