{"id":44871,"date":"2023-10-20T15:39:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/glamcorner-raises-seed-funding-from-airtree-ventures-hoping-to-emulate-rent-the-runways-success-in-the-fashion-rental-market-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:39:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:39:15","slug":"glamcorner-raises-seed-funding-from-airtree-ventures-hoping-to-emulate-rent-the-runways-success-in-the-fashion-rental-market-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/glamcorner-raises-seed-funding-from-airtree-ventures-hoping-to-emulate-rent-the-runways-success-in-the-fashion-rental-market-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"GlamCorner raises seed funding from AirTree Ventures hoping to emulate Rent the Runway\u2019s success in the fashion rental market – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GlamCorner, a Sydney-based online rental service for designer fashion, has raised seed funding from AirTree Ventures.<\/p>\n

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Founded by Dean Jones and Audrey Khaing-Jones, GlamCorner allows users to rent designer dresses for between 10-15% the cost of purchasing those dresses outright.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a concept well tested in markets outside of Australia. Rent the Runway offers the same service in the United States, and recently raised over $US100 million in venture capital. There\u2019s also Brazil\u2019s Dress and Go, and US-based Bag, Borrow or Steal, which offers a similar service for handbags. Other American startups include Le Tote which offers a subscription-based rental service for a broader range of clothes and accessories, and Style Lend a US peer-to-peer marketplace for borrowing clothes.<\/p>\n

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The funding, neither Jones or Airtree would disclose the exact amount, will be used to take most of GlamCorner\u2019s technology development in-house, increase its inventory and build a more scalable logistics platform. Given the competition offshore, GlamCorner only has plans to target the Australian market for the time being.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe’re unashamedly Australian focused for now, there\u2019s still huge potential to grow in the Australian market,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn 2014 Australian women spent $500 million online on women\u2019s clothing. Which excludes shoes and handbags. That\u2019s our immediate total market. In the context of the entire market, women\u2019s clothing (in Australia) is $6 billion in size.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs online retail penetration rates grow as they have been, we\u2019re very excited about where we can take this. The wind is in our sails in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The success of Rent the Runway, which raised $US60 million in December last year at a valuation of up to $600 million, is what made GlamCorner an appealing investment, according to AirTree co-founder and partner Craig Blair.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe success of overseas designer rental players such as Rent the Runway demonstrate the potential of this business model,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe felt that the GlamCorner team were doing it best here in Australia. They have thousands of customers nationwide; three times the inventory and social following of their nearest competitors; and have achieved impressive growth rates since their 2012 launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Currently GlamCorner has over 500 dresses available for rent and has been doubling its revenue every year since launch in 2012 and has a social media following of around 30,000 people, Jones says.<\/p>\n

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Rent the Runway investors were particularly keen on the potential of its subscription-based business model, a model it adopted only recently. GlamCorner currently charges a single fee for dress rentals, Jones wasn\u2019t willing to say if subscription payments were being considered.<\/p>\n

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GlamCorner is the third startup to receive investment from AirTree\u2019s latest fund, which was launched in July 2014. In December AirTree led a $6 million Series B round for design crowdsourcing platform DesignCrowd, and a $1.5 million \u201cpre-Series A\u201d funding round for pet-sitting Marketplace Pawshake.<\/p>\n

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Do you know more on this story or have a tip of your own? Raising capital or launching a startup?<\/i> . Follow StartupSmart on<\/i> Facebook<\/i>,<\/i> Twitter<\/i>, and<\/i> LinkedIn<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GlamCorner, a Sydney-based online rental service for designer fashion, has raised seed funding from AirTree Ventures.   Founded by Dean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}