B2B e-commerce platform Fashion Cloud raises € 25 million to fuel rapid growth

Fashion Cloud, a European B2B technology solutions provider, has received € 25 million in funding from European specialty growth investor Verdane. With the help of Verdane’s funding and connections, Fashion Cloud plans to expand internationally and grow its current software product line.

The company was founded in 2015 with the goal of developing intelligent software solutions to help brands and retailers digitise the ‘fragmented and inefficient’ wholesale industry, which accounts for 40 per cent of the € 500 billion European fashion market.

Fashion Cloud provides a complete software solution for content and data exchange and also leverages digital pre-order and re-order mechanisms in the fashion wholesale industry.

The Hamburg-based company currently works with over 20,000 retailers and 600 brands using its platform and has seen exponential growth over the past three years. Some well-known names associated with it include Zalando, Magasin du Nord, Hugo Boss and Scotch & Soda.

Its business can now speed up its global expansion even more, as said in a press release, “Verdane has a strong record of investing in tech-enabled businesses, which will enable Fashion Cloud to help solve industry-wide issues such as data harmonisation, content and data management, as well as help the company prioritise transparency around sustainability, by enabling brands to share their sustainability attributes via the Fashion Cloud platform”.

To achieve this goal, the company will continue to focus on smart replenishment solutions and long-term improvements in data sharing and transparency.

Fashion Cloud’s team believes its new investor has ‘deep knowledge of the B2B software market’ and will ‘support Fashion Cloud on its growth trajectory’ thanks to its ‘vast international network’ and its ‘team of in-house experts’.

Co-founder Alies ter Kuile said: “Brands and retailers want to be able to work together more easily and effectively. This investment enables Fashion Cloud to take the collaboration between stakeholders to the next level.”

And Björn Beckman, Principal at Verdane, added: “Fashion Cloud helps fashion brands and retailers to save time, money, and resources. Their impressive growth and customer retention demonstrate just how well-loved the solution is by thousands of businesses. Digitalisation of fashion wholesale is crucial for efficient collaboration and trade, and ultimately to make the industry more economically and environmentally sustainable.”