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Faircado lands €3M to steer shoppers towards sustainable second-hand options

Faircado-team
Faircado team. Picture credits; Faircado.

Faircado, a Berlin-based startup revolutionising second-hand shopping with AI, has closed a €3M pre-seed funding round. Led by World Fund, Europe’s leading climate venture capital firm, the round also includes investment from Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, NEA, and Northzone via the Slush 100 Startup Prize, as well as Impact Shakers.

Fuelling expansion and innovation

The recent funding comprises €1M from World Fund, €1M from Slush VC’s, and €150,000 from Impact Shakers. This brings the total raised to €3M, including an earlier investment of €750,000 from BackBone Ventures, Earlybird, Minc accelerators, Peak Capital, and Atomico’s angels in November 2022. The fresh capital will support team growth, expansion into the UK and French markets, and further development of Faircado’s image recognition technology.

Innovative AI-driven shopping assistant

Faircado, a Berlin-based startup, is pioneering Europe’s first AI-powered second-hand shopping assistant. Committed to reducing global waste, Faircado is revolutionizing e-commerce into re-commerce, making second-hand shopping a top choice for consumers. Founded in 2022 by Evoléna de Wilde d’Estmael and Ali Nezamolmaleki, Faircado embodies a bold vision for a sustainable future, providing a convenient browser extension for users to discover second-hand items.

Faircado’s AI-powered browser extension, integrates over 60 million products from 50 partners, including eBay, Back Market, Grailed, Rebuy, and Vestiaire Collective, promoting a circular economy to millions of shoppers.

Utilizing advanced AI with image-matching algorithms, Faircado extracts essential details like product images, titles, and brands, enabling personalized resale recommendations. The company’s revenue model combines a percentage commission on sales with fixed fees for redirecting users to partner platforms.

Tapping into a growing market

With the second-hand clothing market projected to surpass fast fashion by 2030, driven by Gen Z’s demand for sustainable consumption, Faircado aims to elevate recycling rates and offer eco-friendly shopping solutions. Currently, only 7% of the world’s resources are recycled within the circular economy, a figure that has declined since 2018 due to rising material extraction.

Faircado’s extension supports over 1,600 websites, from Amazon and Zalando to Patagonia and Apple, offering consumers alternatives in fashion, electronics, and books. The startup plans to broaden its offerings to include furniture and children’s items, further disrupting traditional retail sectors.

Strategic partnerships and future goals

Co-founder and CEO Evoléna de Wilde d’Estmael emphasised the importance of their new partner: “World Fund is an ideal partner for Faircado. Their expertise, expansive network, and commitment to climate tech that bolsters a regenerative world will be instrumental as we scale our product. Tim’s experience in founding and scaling successful brands like Ecosia and Eyeo will provide invaluable insight into the intersection of mass-market consumer tech and circular economy principles. With this latest funding, we aim to make sustainable choices more accessible and mainstream for millions of consumers.”

Tim Schumacher, General Partner at World Fund, shared his enthusiasm: “We see immense potential in Faircado’s mission to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Our society buys too much stuff, while our basements, bookshelves, and closets are full of exactly the stuff other people want. Faircado’s browser extension reminds us of this fact by offering second-hand options that are often 80% cheaper.”

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