Vestiaire Collective (formerly known as “Vestiaire de Copines”), a “social shopping” website dedicated to second-hand fashion and launched 2 years ago, raises $10 million (€7.5 million) to accelerate expansion.
Clipperton Finance acted as Sole Manager of the transaction.
Paris, October 4, 2011 – Clipperton Finance, a leading European corporate finance boutique, today announced the closing of a $10million (€7.5 million) fund-raising for Vestiaire Collective bringing Balderton to the capital.
“For this second round, our goal was to integrate a symbolic VC that is heavily involved in social web, e-commerce and fashion, and able to sustain our commitment to expand abroad,” said Sébastien Fabre CEO and founder of the site.
Bernard Liautaud, partner at Balderton Capital, former co-founder and CEO of Business Objects joined the board of Vestiaire Collective: “I am very pleased to participate in the development of Vestiaire Collective and to support this ambitious and passionate team. Vestiaire Collective brings a major innovation to the online fashion retailing business through its social shopping model. A model with a significant international potential… ”
Ventech also reiterates its confidence in the site’s growth strategy by joining this second round. Ventech had secured the first round of Vestiaire Collective in June 2010 and invested $2m (€1.5m) into the company. “In early 2010, we were seduced by the management team, with its experience in internet and fashion, and by their disrupting approach of second-hand fashion retailing. We are proud to show again our full support to this talented team in its international expansion, “said Claire Houry, a Partner at Ventech and a Vestiaire Collective “board member”.
Clipperton Finance was the sole advisor of Vestiaire Collective throughout the operation. “Web start-up financing is of paramount importance, especially in Vestiaire Collective’ critical development phase, when there is a strong growth opportunity, including internationally. We are pleased to have built such a high-level syndicate of experienced investors for Vestiaire Collective,” said Stéphane Valorge and Thomas Neveux, the Partners in charge of the transaction at Clipperton Finance.
The community site plans to open the wardrobes of “fashionistas” from all over the world by giving them the ability to buy and sell clothes and accessories from any country.
Starting in October, Vestiaire Collective will lay the foundation stone of its international development strategy. The site will be opening in multiple languages and currencies with a particular focus on the UK market that already represents a fast growing community of active users on the site.
For more information, please contact:
Clipperton Finance
Stephane Valorge, Partner, svalorge@clipperton.net
Thomas Neveux, Partner, tneveux@clipperton.net
Xavier Lottin, Senior Associate, xlottin@clipperton.net
About Vestiaire Collective
Vestiaire Collective is a 600 000 member strong “social shopping” website, which includes, where users can buy and sell second-hand clothes and fashion accessories in good condition. The site differs from the conventional online market places by playing a strong intermediary role in:
– Upstream: the items and brands that are put up for sale are subject to a strict selection process. 30% of the items offered are not kept as they are not trendy enough. This way, the 40,000+ products catalog attracts a fashion committed community crazy.
– Downstream, each product sold goes through the hands of a quality manager before it is sent to its new owner
About Clipperton Finance
Based in Paris and London, Clipperton Finance is a European corporate finance boutique dedicated to the High Tech and Media industries. Clipperton is focused on start-up and high-growth companies in the Internet, Software, Telecom, Components, CleanTech, MedTech and Media spaces, advising them in their financial transactions: fundraising/capital increases and Mergers & Acquisitions. Over the past years the company and its team have successfully structured numerous high level international transactions in the European High Tech sector.