The RealReal Scores Real Big $40M Funding Deal

Online shopping has cracked open many markets that were previously controlled by a few select brand gatekeepers, and as luxury consignment retailer The RealReal keeps finding out, there’s plenty of money to be had in selling brand-name goods that didn’t the first time around.

The RealReal announced on Thursday (April 21) that it had secured $40 million in a Series E funding round led by Greenspring Associates and supported by new partners Broadway Angels, NextEquity Partners and Springboard Fund. With the extra capital, The RealReal now sits on about $123 million in total funding, which CEO and Founder Julie Wainwright is confident can propel the online marketplace to even greater success.

“This new round of funding will take our business to the next level,” Wainwright said in a statement. “As we look ahead, we’re excited about growing the business globally, while continuing to provide our customers and consignors with an inimitable business model that makes buying and selling pre-owned luxury goods online as easy, trustworthy and lucrative as possible.”

With that much funding and a business model that pays sellers upwards of 70 percent of their items’ sale prices, The RealReal does indeed seem poised for growth. Wainwright told Fashionista that the marketplace could clock $1 billion in annual sales in two or three years, but what might come as more of a surprise is where Wainwright sees the site going for its next source of capital infusion.

“In theory, this is our last [fund] raise prior to an IPO,” she said. “That’s where we’re going.”

That’s some healthy ambition for a site that sells luxury goods on the cheap, but if five funding rounds and a booming market for online fashion to grow into doesn’t set a company up for a successful IPO, nothing but the unicorn-iest venture capital support could.