Yahoo Finance Grailed Closes $60 Million Series B Round Led by Goat
Grailed on Thursday closed a Series B funding round of $60 million led by Goat Group with participation from new investor Groupe Artémis and previous investors Thrive Capital and Index Ventures.
Groupe Artémis is the holding company started by Francois Pinault, whose family also owns Gucci parent Kering.
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The community marketplace will utilize the funding to enhance its existing authentication service that, according to Grailed chief executive officer Arun Gupta, has kept the rate of counterfeits since March 2021 at less than 0.5 percent, as well as its payments structure, merchandising, content and editorial and how users buy and sell on the site.
Gupta aims for sellers to create more of a presence on Grailed and be able to personalize and take ownership of their page.
“I think that the focus on the inventory was very important initially, because we needed to educate people that buying from other people is a viable alternative,” Gupta said. “Now that we’ve done this, we’re putting more effort into who you’re buying from.”
He mentioned sellers like Justin Reed, who has over 40,000 followers on Instagram and a separate website, and 4gseller, who resells brands like Chrome Hearts and Enfants Riches Déprimés on Grailed as some “celebrity” sellers and proof that sellers are becoming boutiques.
In addition to the closing the round, Grailed has appointed Goat Group chief operating officer Yunah Lee to the board, joining the likes of Gupta, Grailed chief technology officer Julian Connor and Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer, among others.
“We are incredibly excited to lead Grailed’s second funding round and partner with them to advance the experience for our two communities,” said Goat Group cofounder and CEO Eddy Lu. “Grailed and Goat share a common approach, based on authenticity, trust and a highly curated perspective on style, which is core to our brand as we bring the greatest products together from the past, present and future.”
Gupta wouldn’t give specifics on Goat and Groupe Artémis’ involvement going forward but said, “We’re focused on delivering as much value as we can to our community. We have shared principles and have many opportunities to have a win-win. There are so many players in the primary market, and the secondary market is only getting started. In 10 years, there are going to be 10 times more players and we can only benefit from getting closer together.”
According to the company, since its Series A funding, the platform has almost doubled in size with over 7 million global users and over 3 million listings from over 10,000 luxury and streetwear brands.
During this growth phase, Grailed expanded on its editorial offerings, partnered with celebrities on Closet Sales, where guests sell their pieces, and also sister site, Heroine, for women’s brands. Although Heroine is operating, its Instagram page has been disabled. Gupta did not go into detail on the site’s future, but said, “There are things to come involving Heroine and Grailed.”
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