Kidswear resale marketplace dotte has closed a successful crowdfunding campaign ahead of schedule, having more than doubled its funding target. The campaign only ran publicly for 19 days and finished at 215% funded. Empowering dotte’s community to directly invest in the platform’s future, it saw 473 investors secure shares.
New individual investors include community members from major fashion brands Net-a-Porter and Farfetch. Ronojoy Dam, Global Brand Director at Farfetch, says; “I’m very happy to have invested in dotte, a business that stands for so many things I believe in − pro-planet, pro-family, pro-women − with a beautifully simple idea. It’s the clearest vision for me of what the future of kidswear should be.”
The kidswear resale marketplace will use investment to build a dotte app and aims to expand into international markets in the near future.
Founders Samantha Valentine and Louise Weiss (pictured top) add; “We’ve been blown away by the response to our crowdfund, we hit our target the morning we launched to the public and are so excited to be overfunded by such a significant amount. We can’t wait to use the investment to accelerate the business and build the ultimate user experience on an app; the number one thing our community wants.”
The platform has shown incredible growth since its launch in November 2020.
This includes a 2,148% increase in registered users in the first 15 months, with over 15,000 parents now signed up. Furthermore, dotte recently cemented its position as the brand partner of choice for major retailers, securing partnerships with M&S and Clarks. The partnerships allow users to sell items from these brands via the marketplace in return for rewards and store discounts.
The resale market is set to be twice as big as fast fashion in 10 years’ time. And investors are seeing a huge opportunity within the kidswear space. Recently commissioned research highlights that 183 million items of kids’ clothing and 162 million pairs of kids’ shoes currently end up in landfill in the UK alone. dotte aims to help reduce the waste associated with children’s clothing. It is tackling these issues head-on with a simple dedicated solution for buying, selling, donating and recycling secondhand kidswear.
The co-founders add; “We’re so happy that our community has been empowered to invest. We’re incredibly proud of the progressive, fashion-conscious community of like-minded parents who make up the DNA of dotte. We wanted them to own a slice of it and be part of its future – but also feel like they’re investing in a business that will reward them and the planet.”
For further information on dotte, please click here.
