Secret Sales, a discount platform for premium clothing and beauty brands, has clinched a $10m funding round to accelerate its expansion into Europe.
Sky News understands that the company, which was bought by retail entrepreneurs Chris Griffin and Matt Purt three years ago, will announce this week that it has secured the additional capital from a syndicate of leading investors.
Secret Sales, which helps upmarket brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Kurt Geiger, Puma and Versace sell surplus stock while allowing them to retain control of the products’ branding and pricing, says it has accumulated an inventory of 25m items with a combined value of £3 billion – a year-on-year increase of 125%.
The company is chaired by Nick Beighton, the former boss of ASOS who now runs Matchesfashion.
Its new funding has been committed by the same backers which led Secret Sales’ previous funding round in June 2021.
They include Perwyn, the European private equity investor, and Belerion Capital, an e-commerce investor which backed ASOS, The Hut Group and Boohoo.
Big Ideas Group, a growth-stage investor, also participated.
Operating in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, it has drawn up plans to expand to another 12 international markets.
Chris Griffins, Secret Sales’ chief executive, said: “With the current economic climate still uncertain, and the funding market particularly tricky to predict, we are extremely proud of our success in this Series B funding.
“The confidence of our existing investors is testament to the incredible results we have achieved during this past year, showing that there is significant reason and opportunity to invest in the Secret Sales business model worldwide.
“The ongoing demand from brands and retailers looking for an upmarket, profitable, and sustainable way to sell non-full price inventory has accelerated and we are fast becoming the only real 360-degree solution.”
Iain McDonald, founder of Belerion Capital Group, and a non-executive director at Boohoo and The Hut Group, said the latest funding round “will allow an accelerated international rollout”.
Based in the UK, Secret Sales said 40 million unique users visited its platform last year, and that it has nine million registered account-holders.