Made.com buys Trouva, will keep it as a standalone brand

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 9, 2022

Made.com Group — the stock exchange-listed artisan interiors seller —  announced on Monday that it’s buying Trouva “to advance the group's growth strategy”.  

London-based Trouva is a major platform to discover independent boutiques and brands offering customers a curated range of fashion, lifestyle and homewares products. The company is currently loss-making but Made said the “enlarged group will leverage scale and marketing efficiency and expertise to improve the financial performance”.

Launched in 2015, Trouva has relationships with over 700 boutiques across Europe and has delivered to customers in 34 countries so far this year.  

It will retain its operational independence and under the current leadership of CEO Alex Loizou and COO Dimple Patel, it will remain as a standalone brand.

Made didn’t provide details of the transaction but said the purchase “accelerates the group's strategic priorities, particularly around choice and reach”.

While Trouva is partly a fashion destination, Made said that “on choice, the acquisition is expected to accelerate the expansion of homeware SKU count on Made's curated marketplace, giving customers even more variety and newness”.  

And on Reach, it added that it anticipates “leveraging Trouva's cross-border functionality to increase the distribution coverage for Made's marketplace product offer”.

It also highlighted Trouva’s “attractive marketplace technology”, which will be integrated into the group's existing marketplace tech stack, significantly enhancing functionality around dropship, carrier integration and inventory management”.

It also plans to build out the existing Trouva tech hub in Portugal “to create a new centre of excellence”.

Also this will be overseen by Made’s tech chief Geert Engels, “who has extensive experience in successfully integrating technology functions”.

There will also be savings made and with the purchase fully funded by cash, it’s “expected to deliver a strong return on investment”.  

Made CEO Nicola Thompson said Trouva “is a great strategic fit for Made as we continue to enhance our marketplace offer. This acquisition will allow us to significantly accelerate our growth strategy by expanding our curated product range — giving our customers more choice and newness — and scaling the business in key territories both established and targeted by leveraging Trouva's exceptional cross-border technology”.”

And Trouva co-founder Loizou added: “We are excited for the future of Trouva as part of Made. The combination of the two businesses enables us to leverage synergies across our brands, customers and our technology platform. We will continue on our mission to support independent boutiques and brands by making their curation accessible.”