Kirondo, which has previously claimed to be the market leader for ‘pre-owned children’s clothing’ in Germany, has been acquired by Spain’s Percentil. The amalgamation creates a large commercial block at the heart of the European market with both companies buying and selling “nearly-new” clothes. Their mutual philosophies are to support parents in selling on hardly used clothes their children have grown out of and passing a discount onto other parents.
It’s a tried and tested model in households across the world but startups like Percentil, similar to the innovating US-based company ThredUp, scale the hand-me-down practice up allowing it to function as a business.
“[The] key problem we solve is to give parents access to high quality kids fashion at heavy discounts,” said Percentil co-founder and CEO Luis Ongil.
He continued. “At the same time we allow them to easily monetize the lightly used clothes they have in their kids’ closets; kids grow too fast and their clothes stay behind sometimes unused, so we give this massive inventory an outlet and pay a fair price for those items we then sell in our e-shop across Europe.”
At this stage Percentil isn’t disclosing the terms of its acquisition of Team Europe-founded Kirondo. What has been announced is the deal is for all-stock and includes 30,000 items, the website and brand. Virtually all of Kirondo’s 20 or so staff are staying after the deal takes place, which includes two of its three founders.
Percentil has been clear that it plans to maintain Kirondo as a separate entitiy but it will be a partnership. Back office functions such as stock and logistics will be shared, meaning a smarter approach to selling clothing stock across Europe and allowing for items that go in and out of fashion in different European countries.
In parallel to Percentil’s development Rebelle, which provides an online marketplace for second-hand designer fashion, announced a “multi-million Euro” Series B round. Percentil has an intention to expand into women’s clothing in Spain and further across Europe in the near future.