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In August last year, Selfridges launched its new sustainability-focused Project Earth initiative. The launch, which included a range of new pieces from sustainable brands, featured the eye-catching announcement of a permanent space for the fashion rental platform HURR. It was a mainstream crossover moment for HURR and the wider fashion rental industry.
The idea underpinning the model is simple: the customer pays a relatively small amount to ‘rent’ a garment for a weekend, holiday, or occasion. It provides a more affordable, accessible and sustainable alternative to the cycle of buying and disposing of items.
It’s popular, too. The burgeoning market (which, until now, has largely been geared towards women) has reported a series of eye catching figures over recent years, pointing to extraordinary growth. By Rotation’s user base more than doubled between March and September last year, while Rent The Runway a U.S. based service was valued at $1 billion
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Total funding: $467.4 million, according to Crunchbase
Turo s platform allows users to rent cars directly from their owners. The company says that there are more than 450,000 vehicles and more than 850 unique makes and models available to rent.
8. Viagogo
Category: Tickets
Total funding: $65 million, according to Crunchbase
Viagogo is a European marketplace for ticket exchange and resale. The company, founded by StubHub cofounder Eric Baker, made a move to acquire StubHub for $4.05 billion in March, which ended up being blocked by competition watchdog The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
7. ThredUp Thousands of garments are stored on a three-tiered conveyor system at a sorting facility for ThredUp, an online thrift store.
The move aims to help Farfetch plug into Alibaba’s 779 million consumers.
In November, it was announced that Alibaba and Swiss luxury goods group Richemont will invest $550m (£412m) each in Farfetch, for a 25% stake in the joint venture, that will include the etailer’s new marketplace operations in China called Farfetch China. Separately, Groupe Artemis, a Paris-based company with luxury investments among its holdings, will invest a further $50m (£37m) to increase its stake in Farfetch.
Judy Liu, managing director of Farfetch Greater China, said: “Tmall’s customers are now able to shop the broadest selection of luxury fashion online from their favourite luxury brands and boutiques, and find inspiration and incredible curation from all corners of the globe. They will now have access to almost 3,500 brands, the vast majority of which were not previously available on Tmall, as Farfetch’s storefront significantly expands the luxury category for Tmall’s loyal customers.