UAE’s The Luxury Closet raises $14m growth capital

Online luxury resale marketplace, The Luxury Closet, has secured a $14m equity capital raise, it announced on June 20.

The funding round was led by GMP Investments, with participation from regional and international investors including HB Investments, Nazer Group, MEVP, and MLM Investment Company. DFSA regulated firm Awad Capital Ltd. acted as financial advisors to the company, in cooperation with Drake Star Partners, a global investment bank.

The capital raised will help accelerate the company’s global growth which aims to expands its presence in markets outside the UAE.

The rise of pre-owned luxury fashion marks a shift amid the sustainability movement as consumer patterns are shifting towards a more conscious approach to fashion. The global pandemic has also increased the flow of clothing onto the secondary market with shoppers increasingly looking to buy pre-owned.

“Re-sale is the future of shopping. We expect one in six transactions to be pre-owned by the end of the decade. This marks a paradigm shift in consumer choice and the value chain of the fashion and retail industry. What we are excited about most is leading the industry to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.” said CEO and founder of The Luxury Closet, Kunal Kapoor.

“MEVP is happy to report a partial exit for its first Fund and remains bullish on its ownership in MEVFII and MEVFIII,” said Walid Hanna, founder and CEO at Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), which has seeded and backed The Luxury Closet in each successive funding round.

“We are delighted to lead this investment at a time when consumers everywhere are increasingly focused on sustainability. We are fortunate to be partnering with a visionary management team and leading investors from the region to make The Luxury Closet a key actor of the global resale economy,” added Faisal Mikou, chairman of GMP Investments.

Mona Kattan, president of HB Investments, added: “Being eco-friendly is so important to us as family and an organisation, and The Luxury Closet advocates that by recycling Luxury Fashion. Having a platform that allows us to re-sell and buy luxurious items at an affordable cost is so meaningful to us because it opens up the accessibility to more people and also reduces the incentive to buy counterfeits.”

The Luxury Closet has teams across five counties and serves clients worldwide representing 85 countries, with 10 million unique visitors annually and over two million members.

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