Luxury dress sharing platform The Volte raises $4 million in Series A led by eBay Ventures

Australian designer fashion rental marketplace The Volte, which connects borrowers and lenders to more than 70,000 designer dresses via a digital platform, has closed an oversubscribed $4 million Series A funding round, which was led by eBay’s venture capital arm, eBay Ventures.

The Volte was founded in Perth in 2017 by Kym Atkins, Bernadette Olivier, Genevieve Hohnen and Jade Hirniak to change the way Australians consume fashion and tackle the fast-fashion phenomenon by allowing people to rent out their clothes on the platform.

In 2019, the startup raised $700,000 in funding from a consortium of angel investors, and in 2022, fashion powerhouse Kellie Hush joined the team, taking on the role of creative director.

In connection with the investment, The Volte and eBay are also planning to enter into a commercial partnership that will build on eBay’s longstanding commitment to re-commerce, with an aim to bring significant benefits to sellers, buyers and brands.

For the luxury dress sharing platform, month-on-month bookings have already doubled in 2023, with more than 70,000 dresses listed on the platform and 300,000 monthly active users.

On average, a dress is rented out nine times on The Volte, however, some popular dresses see hundreds of requests with many lenders earning more than $100,000 a year renting out their designer wardrobe.

The Volte doesn’t hold any inventory and instead allows individuals to monetise and earn income from their designer wardrobes.

Ready to scale

CEO and co-founder Bernadette Olivier says the investment and partnership with eBay reinforces the global consumer shift away from disposable fashion.

“Key to the fashion industry becoming sustainable is for better-made, high-quality items to stay in circulation for longer. Our partnership with eBay will strengthen The Volte’s ambition to grow the circular fashion economy in Australia and we are already working with eBay Australia on several initiatives that will reduce fashion disposability,” she says.

Speaking to SmartCompany, Oliver says The Volte will use the investment to scale its marketplace and its integration with brands.

“Being a pure fashion technology player, we also see ourselves in a great position to be on the cutting edge of innovation such as virtual try-ons and instant authentication,” she adds. 

In October 2022, The Volte unveiled a direct integration with retailers and designers, which allows users to instantly list newly purchased items for rental. At the same time, designers can seamlessly earn royalties from their items each time one is rented or on-sold.

“We are absolutely thrilled at the response from the Australian fashion community. Australian designers already make beautiful designs that are in high demand on the rental and resale market and that are durable and designed to be long-term investments rather than disposable fashion,” says Oliver. 

The startup has also found support among the wider Australian tech community too, says Oliver, who says sharing economy startups Parkhound, Camplify and Mad Paws have been among the supporters of The Volte, along with members of the women founder community such as Prezzee and MadeComfy.

Taking on fast fashion

According to the Australian Fashion Council’s 2023 Clothing Data Report, Australia is the second largest consumer of fast fashion after the US. The report states on average each year, every Australian buys 56 items of clothing and over 200,000 tonnes of clothing is sent to Australia’s landfill.

Oliver says the investment will allow the platform to “accelerate our growth and continue to shift consumer behaviour away from fast fashion and towards durable designer fashion”.

“This move changes fashion from being perceived as an expense to now being recognised as an asset capable of earning consumers income and having real tangible value,” she says. 

“It also recognises that the peer-to-peer rental and resale markets, rather than cannibalise designer sales, actually support and drive sales. Australian fashion designers are in high demand and leaders such as Alemais will continue to innovate and set the bar high for sustainability and ethical production globally while building profitable and scaleable businesses.

“We are all about encouraging people — and making it possible — to purchase better quality clothes, moving away from the fundamentally flawed fast-fashion model.

“This has the potential to disrupt the $420 billion fast fashion industry. Consumers can look at fashion as an investment, rather than as disposable.”

The Series A investment round also included investment from venture capital firm BetterLabs.

Brooke Eichhorn, eBay Australia’s head of fashion, said eBay has long been a champion of fashion re-commerce, with 16 million pre-loved fashion items listed for sale on eBay.com.au in previous years. 

“This partnership with The Volte will enable us to continue challenging and changing what it means to buy, sell and love fashion,” said Eichhorn in a statement. 

“Buy now, earn now, sell later are opportunities that last a lifetime. By pioneering greater accessibility, transparency and sustainability we are way ahead of the curve in making fashion go further.”