Vintage Bloodbath: Which Secondhand Clothing Startups Will Survive?

The e-commerce niche for secondhand or vintage clothes is looking crowded, with over $295M in funding raised by 11 startups.

E-commerce sites for selling vintage or secondhand clothes have recently been a hot area for venture capital investment. But like food-delivery the area is looking increasingly crowded, and a shakeout is now imminent.

Re/Code’s Jason Del Rey reports that “at least three of the venture-backed companies in the space have recently been shopping themselves to potential acquirers,” and cites secondhand marketplaces Twice and Shop Hers by name.

We used CB Insights data to break down total funding to secondhand clothing marketplaces vs. the amount of time since their last raise. This data offers hints as to how vulnerable the companies are, and which other secondhand marketplaces might be at higher risk of consolidation.

Shop Hers, a reported acquisition target, last raised funding from Floodgate and Elevation Partners in December 2013. It has been nearly 20 months since Twice raised funding. Bib+Tuck and Vaunte each haven’t raised funding in over two years.

In contrast, TheRealReal, Poshmark and Tradesy have all raised over $40M in funding including rounds to each in the last 6 months.

Overall, since we last dug into the the growing secondhand clothing startup ecosystem in February 2014, the niche has been red-hot. In April, Poshmark raised a new $25M Series C from investors including Mayfield Fund and Menlo Ventures. And TheRealReal raised a $40M Series D from investors including Industry Ventures, e.ventures and Greycroft Partners in February.

The table below highlights the range of funding totals to secondhand marketplaces over the last several years.

Secondhand Clothing Marketplaces – Financing Comparison
Headquarters	Select Investors	Total Funding
San Francisco, CA	Greycroft Partners, e.ventures, InterWest Partners, Novel TMT Ventures, Canaan Partners	$82.6M
Santa Monica, CA	Rincon Venture Partners, 500 Startups, Double M Capital, Kleiner Perkins	$46.5M
San Francisco, CA	Trinity Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Highland Capital, Founder Collective	$45.9M
Menlo Park, CA	Mayfield Fund, SoftTech VC, Menlo Ventures, inventus Capital Partners	$40.5M
Vilnius, Lithuania	Accel Partners, Insight Venture Partners	$33.5M
San Francisco, CA	Felicis Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Lerer-Hippeau Ventures, IA Ventures, CrunchFund	$22.5M
San Francisco, CA	Baseline Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Andreessen Horowitz	$21.1M
Santa Monica, CA	Floodgate, Elevation Partners, Box Group, SV Angel	$3.5M
New York, NY	Battery Ventures, Maveron, J. Christopher Burch	$1.1M
Washington DC	SimplePitch, Fortify.vc	$990K
New York, NY	J. Christopher Burch	$600K