By Rotation raises seed funding as P2P app booms

Social fashion app By Rotation is the latest rental and resale company to raise significant funding from an investment firm. The sector is seeing ultra-fast growth and renting and reselling fashion has become a hot category for investment groups and private investors.

By Rotation has raised €2.7 million in seed funding in a round led by Redrice Ventures. Also taking part were Closed Loop Partners, True Global, Magnus Rausing, Bill Holroyd, DL, June Angelides, Dinika Mahtani and Riccardo Pozzoli.

The business is growing fast with user numbers up 550% in the latest year, with listing growth of 450% and monthly rental revenue rising 1,900%

The app was launched by Eshita Kabra in 2019 with a focus on slower fashion, sustainability and community. It’s a peer-to-peer offer that claims to be the only purely P2P rental business in Britain. It allows its network to both rent and buy while also being able to monetise their own wardrobes.

And it has already attracted a number of high-profile fans in the UK market. They include Lady Amelia Windsor, Camille Charriere, Stacey Dooley, Nicola Coughlan, Dina Asher-Smith, Anita Rani, and Katie Piper.

Users are called Rotators and they number in the hundreds of thousands with their collective wardrobes on the app adding up to almost €12 million in retail value.

The P2P nature of the business also means that By Rotation itself doesn’t have to manage the inventory.

It’s interesting too that it has features such as Lender Activity. This means users can track the labels and looks that are generating the most income. It’s something that could also influence wider consumer shopping decisions to perhaps buy pieces that might have a stronger rental/resale appeal.

Tom March, the founder of investor Redrice Ventures, said: “By Rotation’s P2P focus allows for an obsessive commitment to serving its community. The result is a super loyal family of renters and lenders with the highest standard of user-led quality control. Above all, what truly binds this purpose-driven community is a shared thirst for joy – there is a deficit of hope out there, so time for ‘Rotators’ to spread the joy”.

And Caroline Brown, MD at Closed Loop Partners, added: “By Rotation offers a beautiful solution for today’s fashion consumers that merges the best of social media, peer to peer commerce for a modernised rental and resale experience. The result is an elegant platform that re-inspires shoppers to build communities around the products they love while keeping them in use longer. This is a great model for the future of commerce.”

By Rotation raises seed funding as P2P app booms

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