For many, the pandemic has made us reevaluate how we view our living situations and our possessions. As millions flocked to remote lifestyles, they were also forced to downsize and shed items including clothing. Wardrobe is a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace that allows users to rent out their fashion items to aspiring fashionistas and earn. For renters, they are able to access high-end and unique items while participating in a sustainable circular economy at a time where $400B+ of clothing is discarded each year. The company, founded in 2018, uses retail dry cleaning locations as hubs for its service where renters can pick up and drop off clothing if they are in NYC. The dry cleaners also provide storage and cleaning while earning incremental revenue. Items can also be shipped nationwide for those not near a hub. Wardrobe charges ~35% of the rental fee as a service charge. AlleyWatch caught up with Wardrobe CEO and Founder Adarsh Alphons to learn more about how Wardrobe is making fashion more sustainable, the company’s celebrities influencers, strategic plans, latest funding round from investors that include Slow Ventures, Foundation Capital, Neil Parikh, and Leon Bridges.
Fashion
JOOR Raises Another $46M for its Wholesale Management Platform That’s Powering $1.5B+ in Transactions Every Month
The pandemic forced nearly every industry to modernize. For the wholesale industry, the shift was embodied by the adoption of digital solutions that the industry had previously shied away from. With lockdowns shutting down showrooms and tradeshows, two of the primary mechanisms for B2B wholesale commerce to do business, digital platforms that replicated the in-person experience thrived. JOOR is a wholesale management platform and marketplace that connects retailers, vendors, and brands for fashion, luxury, and home goods. The all-in-one platform provides a seamless virtual showroom experience and handles discovery, transactions, and payments. There are over 12,500 brands and 325,000 retailers transacting on the marketplace currently with no signs of slowing down. AlleyWatch caught up with CEO Kristin Savilia to learn more about how the pandemic resulted in an enduring behavioral shift in the wholesale space, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, ITOCHU Corporation, Battery Ventures, and Canaan Partners.
Ten Little Adds $5M For its Predictive E-Commerce Platform that Ensures Kids are Properly Sized When it Comes to Shoes and Accessories
Early childhood is one of the stages of life where growth is rapid and this makes it difficult for parents to keep up with what size their child should currently be wearing, especially when it comes to shoes. Two out of three kids are wearing the wrong shoe size. Ten Little is an e-commerce platform that lets parents buy the perfect shoes for their kids from a curated assortment of tested brands and the company’s own direct-to-consumer line of shoes. The company has built a predictive data platform that tracks children’s growth and alerts parents when to consider replacing shoes based on age-specific development patterns. Initially focused on footwear, the company has expanded its product line to include socks and accessories including hats and sunglasses. The physician-recommended shoes start a very reasonable $39/pair. Through the pandemic, the company has been able to maintain a 50% MoM growth rate, serving more than 100,000 families. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Fatma Collins to learn more about the company, the challenges of managing a global supply chain through the pandemic, future plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Kindred Ventures and NextView Ventures.
AlgiKnit Raises $2.4M to Turn Kelp into Renewable Yarn and Fibers for Textile Production
As you start your spring cleaning this year, it’s likely that you’ll end up throwing away large amounts of clothing. In fact, the volume of clothing that Americans dispose of annually has doubled in the last twenty years. Only 15% of textiles are presently recycled. AlgiKnit has developed a renewable yarn that’s made from kelp, a plentiful organism that rapidly regenerates. The yarn is extremely durable and compostable. The production process can be applied to an existing factor infrastructure so there isn’t a capital-intensive investment required to switch to using materials with a significantly lower environmental footprint. AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CTO Aaron Nesser to learn more about the innovative process of turning seaweed into eco-conscious textile materials, the company’s future plans, and latest round of funding led by Horizons Ventures.
PAIR Eyewear Raises $12M for its Direct-to-Consumer Eyewear Brand for Kids and Adults
20% of GenX required glasses during their childhood; today that is closer to 40% according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Find out how PAIR Eyewear is tackling this growing market.
CALA Raises $3M to Help Influencers and Creators Launch Fashion Brands From Scratch
CALA is a full-stack managed solution for people looking to launch their own fashion and clothing line. Design, sourcing, sales, and fulfillment are all handled on the platform, which is also supported by a network of experts. Newbie fashion entrepreneurs are often overwhelmed with all the moving parts and CALA makes it easy all for a monthly subscription fee and percentage of sales. CEO Andrew Wyatt shes some light about the company’s traction which includes clients like NFL player Travis Kelce, rapper A$AP Ferg, and model Tatiana Ringsby. The company, founded in 2016, also just closed its seed round from investors that include Maersk Growth and Real Ventures.
Pepper Raises $2M for Bras Designed for Small Chest Sizes
“We didn’t match the same patterns as many of the direct to consumer startups you see today that raised a lot of money early on and had high burn rates. We have been serendipitously building the business in a way that would help us weather the current storm: our team has always been lean with just 3 full-time employees, geographically distributed and remote (which investors initially questioned our ability to build a fast-growing DTC startup this day), and have burned very little over the last few years.”
Ten Little is the Fun and Personalized Way to Buy Shoes for Babies and Kids
As a new mom, I found myself struggling with knowing which shoes would support healthy development and which sizes were right for my daughter… I ordered multiple sizes, styles, and guessed which one might be a good fit by trying to feel her toes and heel. Given how quickly she was growing, I had to do this all over again every few months – all the while thinking there had to be a better way.
Nimble Made is the Slim Fit Dress Shirt Brand Filling a Gap in the Market for Asian Americans
When it comes to dress shirts, one size does not fit all, and finding a dress shirt that fits is even more difficult if you do not fit into the traditional, American dress shirt sizes. Nimble Made is creating high quality, “actually slim” dress shirts that fit right off the rack. Designed with the Asian […]
CUUP Raises $11M to Redesign Intimates that Support Women in a Whole New Way
Finding a bra that fits isn’t as simple as it sounds. CUUP is the direct-to-consumer, intimate apparel brand that has created stylish, minimalist bras for all shapes and sizes. CUUP’s bras are offered in sizes from 30A to 38H, and the company’s website helps women discover their true bra size through 20-minute virtual fittings. If the […]
Wardrobe Raises $1.5M to Turn Dry Cleaners into Fashion Hubs
Remember sneaking into an older sibling or your parents’ closet and browsing through which shirt you planned on “borrowing”. This unofficial method of borrowing is being completely reinvented with the latest peer-to-peer fashion platform Wardrobe. Since people only wear 20% of their wardrobe regularly, this platform creates a new revenue stream by allowing people to […]