Rebag, the online marketplace for buying, selling, and trading luxury handbags, jewellery, and watches, said today that it has secured $33 million in a Series E investment round headed by private equity company Novator, with previous investors including General Catalyst participating. This takes the total amount raised by the firm to $101 million.
The current round prepares Rebag for its next cycle of innovation and fast development, following a robust year driven by technology advancements and category expansion. Rebag has had rapid growth in the previous 12 months, virtually tripling its business in the two years since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
“We did our previous funding round in early 2020 when the world was a much different place,” founder and CEO Charles Gorra told me. “Fast forward a couple of years and we’ve been able to thrive in that environment in spite of all the challenges. We’ve reached a more significant scale presently. A lot of it has to do with the strong resale tendencies that were already in place at the time. It’s the concept of people caring more about the environment, as well as the reality that everyone was stuck at home for months last year.”
Customers were able to rethink their beliefs as world citizens and consumers, according to Gorra, because they were forced to stay at home during the epidemic. “As a result, a lot of people want to be more conscious,” he explained. “They want to buy the greatest, highest-quality things that will hold their worth because they were made in a specific way.” Of course, resale is a big part of that.”
“The quality and consistency of the execution from the Rebag team has pleased us,” says Novator managing partner Birgir Ragnarsson. “We feel the luxury resale industry is still in its infancy. Rebag has devised a one-of-a-kind strategy that will allow it to scale massively.”
