Active Sonar, the Japan-based owner of fashion resale platform Reclo, secured approximately ¥36bn ($33.8m) from investors including SBI Investment and SBI Securities, subsidiaries of financial services group SBI, yesterday.
Investment manager Citic Capital also participated in the round, while financial services firm Mizuho Bank supplied debt financing according to The Bridge.
Reclo runs an e-commerce platform that sells second-hand luxury goods such as high fashion items, watches and jewellery. Sellers access company experts who assess each product and come up with a suitable price, and Reclo ships the goods to the buyer itself.
The company sends an item back if the seller is unhappy with the recommended price, and the personal touch is intended to separate it from consumer-to-consumer platforms where the condition of goods cannot be verified by a third party.
The funding will support an international expansion that began in 2016 when Reclo expanded into China. The country is responsible for some 70% of the company’s foreign sales, but it has built up a global sales team it claims can interact in multiple languages across some 200 countries.
Reclo also plans to launch a cross-border sales operation focusing on new luxury products, which it will source from countries including China and sell internationally.
Active Sonar raised $2m in 2014 from B Dash Ventures, a venture capital firm backed by several of Japan’s largest companies, and Future Investment.
