UK-based social shopping app Depop has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures led the round. According to the company, the capital will be used to open an office in New York with Erik Martin, Reddit’s former general manager, set to lead U.S. operations.
PRESS RELEASE
London, 29th January 2015 Depop, the social shopping app for iPhonetm and Android, is today announcing that it has successfully closed a Series A investment round of $8 million. Depop allows users to sell items by simply taking a photo of their product, sharing it on a profile page and offering it for sale to the community.
The investment, led by Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe) and Holtzbrinck Ventures, enables the expansion of the UK-based company into the US, taking its unique social shopping experience across the pond. This development is a natural next step for the company, in response to Depop’s organic growth in the United States. With the opening of a New York office, Depop is also announcing that Erik Martin, former General Manager of Reddit, will be heading up the US operation.
Founded in 2011 by serial entrepreneur Simon Beckerman with early stage investor H-Farm Ventures, Depop quickly grew in popularity in Europe, striking a chord with Millennials, and in particular fashion bloggers. The app is developed to meet the demand of creative individuals and retailers who want to buy, sell and interact with an engaged community. Depop, which currently sees well over a million new products added for sale each month, enjoyed significant global growth in 2014 with app downloads increasing from 200,000 to 1.8 million.
Runar Reistrup, CEO of Depop, comments: “Depop has grown faster than we ever imagined, not just in Europe, but also in the US. With this latest round of investment, we are now in a position to meet this growing demand. US users are already adding 100,000 items to Depop each month and as a result, opening an office in New York was something we really wanted to do. We are also very excited for Erik to join us, his experience and expertise will help drive Depop’s continued growth.”
Erik Martin, US General Manager of Depop, comments: “There’s something special about Depop. It’s more than just a fun buying and selling app; it’s a playful and evolving community. What happens when you help everyone create their own pop-up shop and connect with each other? I don’t know, but it’s going to be fun to find out.”
Roberto Bonanzinga of Balderton Capital said:”Depop is the perfect app for today’s mobile-focused, social-savvy consumers. We discovered the company while it was still incubating at Hfarm and immediately recognised the uniqueness of a founding DNA based on both tech and fashion. Depop is all about the power of its cross-national community and the recent US growth is a superb validation of that strategy.”
About Depop
Depop, a free app launched on iOS in 2013 and Android in 2014, allows users to sell items by simply taking a photo of their product and uploading it to a profile page. They can then enter a description, including price, location and delivery details before making it publicly available. The integrated social features enable users to follow each other, post comments, plus share their activity to other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing sellers to further promote what they have for sale. When a buyer wishes to make a purchase, they pay through Depop via PayPal, which ensures transactions are secure.
The company was founded in 2011 by Simon Beckerman, whose previous businesses included: PIG a monthly music, fashion and lifestyle magazine and the Italian brand Super Sunglasses. Depop was originally incubated by H-Farm outside Venice, Italy, raising €2million in seed funding from Balderton Capital, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Renzo Rosso, President of OTB, the holding group of Diesel, and Luca Marzotto, supervisory board member of Hugo Boss and others.
Links:
http://www.depop.com/
http://instagram.com/depopmarket
http://twitter.com/depopmarket
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