Dominic Rose knows the ins and outs of the resale market.
The London-based entrepreneur served as the chief operating officer of Depop as it scaled globally and became the go-to secondhand platform for Gen-Z shoppers. Before that, he was the director of strategy at Asos where he ran, amongst other parts of the business, its resale division.
Rose left Depop in February, a few months before it was acquired by Etsy for $1.6 billion, and recently joined the investment firm Founders Factory. He’s already back in the resale market, this time as an investor in Dotte, where parents can buy and sell secondhand children’s clothing. He believes resale for kidswear has a Depop-sized future.
“The opportunity is in extremely high-frequency purchase behaviours,” he said. “The average parent is transacting on kid’s clothing far more than any other purchase they make. So if you build the deep relationship and get high frequency from buyers and sellers, it will deliver really good economics.”
Dotte is part of a new generation of resale start-ups that sees a big opportunity in filling in the gaps not already dominated by the category’s giants, including The RealReal, Poshmark and StockX. Queenly, where shoppers can find gently used prom dresses and other formalwear, raised $6.3 million in a July funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Requipper, a resale site that sells used outdoors gear and apparel also recently raised funding from Ulu Ventures and ALIAVIA Ventures….
