Finns Swap.com raises 19 mln euros

Finnish second-hand online store Swap.com, which is focused on the U.S. market, has raised 19 million euros to accelerate its growth.

The round was led by Swedish eEquity, and it brings the firm’s total equity funding to 46 million euros.

“Swap.com intends to make significant investments in marketing to strengthen its consumer brand and to leverage from previous investments in operations and supporting technology,” the company said in a statement, adding it would also strengthen the organisation, increase marketing activities to build brand awareness and further develop the company’s logistics platform.

Swap.com has been growing 180 % year-over-year, and the company operates a logistics centre of 360,000 square feet in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It has over 1.5 million unique items in stock.

“As an industry, we’re only scratching the surface. There’s a staggering amount of unused, pre-owned merchandise with an estimated value of more than one hundred billion dollars annually. And while there is a large demand for second-hand items, the merchandise has not been moving mostly because there hasn’t been a practical or convenient way to purchase these items online,” Juha Koponen, CEO & Co-Founder of Swap.com, said in a statement.

Swap.com was founded by Koponen and Jussi Koskinen. Other members of the management team come with experience from Zappos, Amazon, Walgreens.com and Grubhub.com. Earlier investors include business angels such as Marc Onetto, formerly a senior executive at Amazon, Cleantech Invest Plc, Finnvera, Tekes and Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Jaan Tallinn.

“Swap.com aims to become the category leader in the rapidly growing online pre-owned retail market, which is emerging between the traditional online shops such as Amazon and peer-to-peer marketplaces such as eBay,” said CEO of Cleantech Invest, Alexander Lidgren.

“The investment round is among the largest in the Nordic start-up scene, and reflects the opportunity for a multi-billion dollar business,“ Lidgren said.