London, February 17th, 2021 – Reflaunt, a tech company empowering the retail industry with a disruptive circular model, has recently secured $2.7 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by SLS Journey, the investment arm of Madaluxe Group (the leading worldwide distributor of luxury fashion).

“By now, the entire fashion industry is well aware that sustainability is both a societal and business imperative. We’re confident that our investment in Reflaunt will deliver a significant positive impact not only financially, but also culturally and socially.” – Sandy Sholl, Co-founder and Executive Chair of MadaLuxe Group

Participating investors include Pierre Denis (Coty Board Senior Advisor and Jimmy Choo ex CEO), Nicolaj Reffstrup (Ganni founder and ex CEO), Textile Innovation Fund, Piquadro, Bluebell Group, and sustainable fashion accelerator Fashion For Good. The Mills Fabrica, a global techstyle innovation platform and Reflaunt Seed investor, increased their stake in the company. Adding to the initial seed round funding led by Yellow Octopus Group, Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit and Swarovski Creative Director Giovanna Battaglia, the startup has now raised $3.7 million in total.

“Improving the detrimental impact that the fashion industry is having on our world requires a holistic approach to responsible behavior. Just replacing conventional fabric with organic alternatives is far from enough. To truly address the challenges we have created for ourselves we also need to consider how our products are consumed and treated post consumption. With its innovative solution to garment lifetime extension Reflaunt will be a leading contributor in our effort to overcome the challenges our industry faces.” – Nicolaj Reffstrup, founder and ex CEO of Ganni

Backed by the fashion industry’s leading brands, distributors, innovators, CEOs and thought leaders, Reflaunt’s disruptive Resale-as-a-Service proposition has already been adopted by fashion houses across the luxury spectrum. The company is working with iconic global fashion brands and retailers such as Balenciaga and COS, and over 20 leading marketplaces such as Rebelle and VideDressing. This funding round comes as the company prepares several launches for early 2021, such as Ba&sh which went live in early January. The funding will be used to support Reflaunt’s expansion within its technology and business development teams. A growth in talent enables successful launches as planned and allows for further support to brands across a variety of resale models.

“The second-hand market is a major environmental issue for our sector and it also represents an important opportunity, that of reaching new communities. We are happy and proud to integrate new responsible business models by partnering with disruptive start-ups like Reflaunt.”- Pierre-Arnaud Grenade, Global CEO of ba&sh

With Reflaunt’s tech solution, fashion brands and retailers allow their own customers to easily resell or recycle their past purchases directly on their e-commerce platform. These items are simultaneously put on sale on 20+ marketplaces in North America, Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia, reaching over 30 million second-hand buyers worldwide. As sellers remain on the brand’s website for the entire resale journey, about 60% of them invest their payout into a new order with the brand. For fashion brands and retailers, this means an increase in sales, customer retention, and access to extremely valuable data on resale performance of their own products. In turn, marketplaces in Reflaunt’s network gain access to a large assortment of high-quality products sourced directly from the brands, with purchase traceability which mitigates counterfeit risk.

Reflaunt’s mission is to foster an industry-wide adoption of circular models and product life extension through its Resale-as-a-Service model. By allowing consumers to easily resell (“re- flaunt”) their past purchases before considering new ones, the company fuels a more conscious approach to shopping and injects high-quality inventory into a booming resale market (growing 20x faster than traditional fashion), ultimately tackling overproduction and textile landfill waste.

Reflaunt’s partner brands not only embrace the growth of the resale market, but they play a leading role within it, enhancing their value proposition to new generations of shoppers. The planet stands to gain: for every consumer buying one used item instead of a new one, we save the equivalent of 66 million trees planted, 1.25 billion showers, and 18,700 garbage trucks full of waste (ThredUP).

The three founders of Reflaunt bring years of experience and deep expertise with luxury brands and tech products. CEO Stephanie Crespin managed Fine Fragrances brands at P&G Benelux prior to launching the leading Southeast Asian luxury resale marketplace StyleTribute, which she led for 6 years before founding Reflaunt. CTO Philippe Benedetti built a Rocket Internet marketplace after gaining years of experience in IT consulting and tech start-up management. CCO Felix Winckler practiced as a lawyer at Christie’s before launching and scaling several consumer tech startups. The fundraise also allowed for the addition to the leadership team of Sofia Gazzotti as Head of Strategy & Finance, who joins Reflaunt from McKinsey & Company after earning an MBA from INSEAD.