By
Bloomberg
Revealed
November 16, 2024
Vinted, Europe's largest on-line second-hand clothes market, is ruling out an preliminary public providing for now because it focuses on increasing past trend.
It's simpler to take care of 5 or 6 buyers than to should appease a big shareholder base, Chief Government Thomas Plantenga stated Thursday. The Vilnius, Lithuania-based firm reached a valuation of 5 billion euros ($5.29 billion) after finishing a secondary share sale final month led by personal fairness agency TPG.
“We’re increasing into new nations and increasing our classes. “We’re taking plenty of dangers,” Plantenga stated in an interview on the Internet Summit in Lisbon. “I need to play these bets.”
Vinted is working to broaden into different segments of the secondhand market, together with telephones, toys, sport consoles and, probably, luxurious watches, Plantenga stated. On the identical time, the corporate is investing in environment friendly delivery, fee and product verification providers, he stated.
“When you have a look at secondhand buying and selling platforms, they’ve been round for many years,” he stated. “What we're attempting to do is create a market that's a lot bigger than something that's on-line, always eradicating each friction level and each price level from the equation.”
Vinted was co-founded in 2008 by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas. Mitkute was shifting home and wished a option to promote her used garments. That led to the creation of an internet site the place customers might alternate their clothes gadgets.
When Dutch-born Plantenga joined the corporate in 2016 as a guide, Vinted was on the verge of chapter. “We had been burning a bit of over 1,000,000 euros a month, and we had roughly 9 to 12 months of runway,” he stated.
A 12 months later, after changing into CEO, Plantenga streamlined Vinted's operations, closed some workplaces in Europe and centralized its know-how, paving the best way to turn out to be Lithuania's first unicorn: a startup valued at greater than $1 billion. . Final 12 months, Vinted recorded an annual revenue for the primary time, with gross sales growing by 61% to a file €596.three million.
The 41-year-old stated he expects Vinted to stay worthwhile this 12 months and subsequent. For now, Vinted is just not taken with being acquired, in accordance with Plantenga.
“There was weak curiosity,” he stated. “However like while you're on a rocket, you're not occupied with getting out. So we haven't critically thought of any of that.”