UK-based peer-to-peer fashion rental platform, By Rotation, has pocketed €2.7 million in seed funding.
The investment round was led by Redrice Ventures (invested recently in Hylo) with additional investors, including Closed Loop Partners, True Global, Magnus Rausing, Bill Holroyd CBE, DL, June Angelides MBE, Dinika Mahtani (Principal at Cherry VC) and Riccardo Pozzoli.
The company intends to continue driving the demand for rental and resale beyond the UK. By Rotation will use the proceeds of this fundraise to further build out the team, accelerate product and community development while expanding to the US later this year.
Caroline Brown, Managing Director at Closed Loop Partners, said: “By Rotation offers a beautiful solution for today’s fashion consumers that merges the best of social media, peer to peer commerce for a modernized rental & resale experience. The result is an elegant platform that reinspires shoppers to build communities around the products they love while keeping them in use longer. This is a great model for the future of commerce.”
Tom March, the founder of lead investor Redrice Ventures, said: “By Rotation’s P2P focus allows for an obsessive commitment to serving its community. The result is a super loyal family of renters and lenders with the highest standard of user-led quality control. Above all, what truly binds this purpose-driven community is a shared thirst for joy – there is a deficit of hope out there, so time for ‘Rotators’ to spread the joy”.
Investor June Angelides MBE added: “As an early user of By Rotation, I have seen first hand how the By Rotation community has grown and how the way we experience fashion has changed for the better. I love learning about the latest trends from other Rotators and sharing how I wore their outfits. By Rotation is the future of fashion and it’s truly circular.”
What does By Rotation do?
Launched by Eshita Kabra in 2019, By Rotation encourages users to rent what they need and lend what they don’t use frequently at a fraction of the retail price. The fashion platform doesn’t buy any inventory and aims to create an inclusive community and doesn’t charge its users any subscription fees.
The ultimate objective of By Rotation is to build a community of ‘style-aware’ and ‘environmentally-aware’ individuals. As it reduces the production of new clothes as users choose to rent instead of something for a one-time event, it brings about a circular economy in the fashion world.
The platform allows the people renting to set the price of each item per day, along with the rental period. The mobile app mimics social media, and allows users to like, comment and interact with one another. Dubbed ‘the Instagram of fashion rental’, the By Rotation app has a communal wardrobe worth over €11.8 million in retail value without inventory management.
Witnesses 550% growth
The fashion rental market is growing as more and more consumers turn to more sustainable choices. Being one of the fastest-growing fashion retail platforms, By Rotation has witnessed a year-on-year user growth of 550%, peer-to-peer listing growth of 450% and monthly rental revenue growth of 1900%.
Since its debut, the platform has a strong and fast-growing community of over 200k lenders and renters across the UK who have come together to share over 25k items from their wardrobes.
Already, the By Rotation platform already has a VIP customer base, including Lady Amelia Windsor, Camille Charriere, Stacey Dooley, Nicola Coughlan, Dina Asher-Smith, Anita Rani, Katie Piper and many more. Also, it has collaborated with top consumer brands and organisations such as Bumble, Westfield, Guerlain, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and more
