Singapore-based fashion re-sale marketplace Refash, which operates as a hybrid retail platform for women looking to trade used clothing, accessories and unused items, has closed a seed round of $294,ooo(or S$400,000). The round was led by Tri5 Ventures, with participation from Malaysia-based Tinkbig Ventures and an undisclosed angel investor.
A graduate of a recent SPH Plug and Play accelerator programme, the startup aims to help women clear their wardrobe of unwanted items such as clothing, bags, and accessories. This seemingly trivial issue actually has some environmental consequences, with Singaporeans disposing up to 41.5 million kilogram (8 kilogram per person) of unwanted clothing each year.
The disposing of so much clothing is a real waste, literally. Rather than just throwing away, I believe in the immense potential in the problems we are solving – bursting closets, clothes wastage and rising landfills to dispose [of] these clothes,
said Refash CEO and Founder Aloysius Sng.
Refash makes it incredibly convenient for women to clean out their closet for cash and at the same time, shop for quality secondhand clothes. All he wants is – to deliver a delightful, frictionless secondhand experience to both buyers and sellers.
Their first outlet at Cityplaza quickly grew from a humble offline business meant to help some of his female friends and fashion bloggers clear out their closet into a thriving start-up that has sold over 20,000 pieces in its first 3 months of operation.
It was then that Aloysius knew, he was on to something big. He rallied his band of brothers, CZ (COO), Stephen (CMO) and Bryant (Head-partnerships) to formally set up the company in January 2016.
Refash also sees an opportunity in the growing acceptance of buying and using pre-loved clothing, and that the existing resale app “may have only tapped on a mere five per cent of women who are looking to sell their unwanted clothes.”
Refash was founded in September 2015, by CEO, Aloysius Sng. He noticed for a long time that his girlfriend doesn’t wear more than 70% of what’s in her closet and went on to validate this with many other female friends. In the current market scenario, solutions to tackle such problems are either inconvenient, time consuming or unlikely to yield meaningful compensation. There had to be a better way, and now we have Refash.
The startup created a system where users who wish to clean their closets just have to pack the unwanted items and have them picked up by the Refash team. The team will then sell the items on the platform.
