Trouva bags $10m to help independent boutiques compete against the retail giants

by Startacus Admin

Trouva, the curated marketplace for the UK’s ‘hidden gem’ homeware and lifestyle brick and mortar boutiques, yesterday announces that it has raised $10m in a Series A round led by BGF Ventures, the UK’s largest venture fund, alongside Index Ventures (Europe’s largest VC fund and investors in Farfetch, ASOS and Etsy) and Octopus Investments (backers of Secret Escapes and Graze).

Launched in September 2015, Trouva has built a technology platform which empowers handpicked offline independent stores to compete with retail multiples and e-commerce giants, while enabling customers to scour a huge array of over 80,000 distinctive, design-led products. Amid an accelerating industry shift to digital and omni-channel, the platform also offers real time ‘click and collect’, one-hour delivery (it has a record-breaking delivery time of just 22 minutes) and worldwide shipping.

Currently bringing together more than 350 of the UK’s independent shops and boutiques in over 100 towns and cities, Trouva’s network of stores is set to continue to grow rapidly.

“We will be using the investment to further develop our unique platform at existing stores within the Trouva community, while funding expansion to new shops and boutiques across the UK, and ultimately further afield too,” says co-founder and CEO Mandeep Singh.

The marketplace will also establish a new base in Lisbon, alongside its existing London HQ, as its tech team, led by co-founder and CTO Alex Loizou, triples in size.

Harry Briggs, partner at BGF Ventures, said: "Discovery is so hard in homewares, and we believe that Trouva could help people across the world discover those unique, meaningful products that make home feel like home – while enabling the most extraordinary independent boutiques to not only survive, but thrive.”

Additional investors in this round include early investor Robin Klein at LocalGlobe, Playfair Capital, Downing Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. Trouva also has a number of high-profile angel backers, including the former CTO of Farfetch and NET-A-PORTER, David Lindsay, Troy Collins co-founder of Secret Escapes, William Reeve co-founder of LOVEFiLM, Carlos Morgado former Group CTO at Just Eat, and Wendy Becker, former CEO of Jack Wills.

Earlier this year Trouva was named one of the UK’s five fastest-growing tech businesses in TheNextWeb’s Tech5, having grown by over 1,509 per cent in the past two years. The startup also scooped The Europas 2017 Hottest E-commerce/Retail startup award and is a member of Tech City UK’s prestigious Upscale programme.

Here's their recent TV advert that offers a pretty good explainer on all things Trouva...

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• #boutiques

Published on: 12th November 2017