United Wardrobe to target new markets in Europe following Peak Capital investment

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Nov 3, 2017

Utrecht-based start-up United Wardrobe received a 1 million euro investment from Dutch fund Peak Capital. With the funding, the company aims to expands its reach by targeting new markets across Europe. 

Founded in 2014, United Wardrobe has grown into the largest clothing marketplace in the Netherlands and Belgium in recent years, according to the company. ​Via United Wardrobe, members are able to offer used clothing, footwear and accessories by creating a virtual closet. At the moment, the start-up has about 1 million active members, who jointly offer 750,000 pieces of used clothing for sale. In addition to the Netherlands and Belgium, the company also ships to Germany and France. The website is currently also available in Dutch, German, French and English.

By targeting new European markets, the company eventually hopes to offer clothing from people in different countries on one platform, rather than individual websites for every market.

Sjuul Berden, co-founder United Wardrobe said: “In recent years we have worked hard to built a beautiful product. Now it's time for United Wardrobe to further grow abroad. Peak Capital has a lot of experience in the international expansion of [online] marketplaces. It’s an investor in Catawiki, for example. In addition, Peak Capital is keen to be actively involved in its participations. This combination is exactly what we need as young entrepreneurs.”

“United Wardrobe allows users to sell unused clothes, and at the same time, buy clothes at a lower price. The strong growth of this marketplace shows, among other things, that this also works cross-border, thus maximizing the benefits of [social] networking,” says Johan van Mil, co-founder and managing partner, Peak Capital.

Thijs Verheul, Thijs Slijkhuis and Sjuul Berden, who were still students at the time, founded United Wardrobe. The social marketplace is available online and via an app. The company believes that quality clothing, which is already in circulation, deserves a new owner. With United Wardrobe, the founders aim to make second-hand clothing the norm, encouraging social networking and sustainability. 

Peak Capital is a Dutch investment fund, founded by experienced entrepreneurs, providing growth-based capital with active hands-on support to early stage marketplace, SaaS and data companies. Peak Capital invests in fast-growing Dutch companies, including Catawiki, InvoiceFinance, Flinders, OneFit and TradeCloud.