Trouva raises £17m to fuel further European expansion

Trouva, the online destination for unique products from the best curators around the world, today announces it has raised £17m in further investment to accelerate international expansion. The funding was led by Octopus Ventures.

Launched in London in September 2015 and co-founded by Alex Loizou, Mandeep Singh and Glen Walker, Trouva enables customers to discover beautiful, hard-to-find products, handpicked by the world’s best curators from Shoreditch to Stockholm.

The marketplace connects its network of independent boutiques with a wider global customer base they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, powered by its proprietary software platform for brick-and-mortar shops, handling everything from inventory management through to logistics.

The funding round which includes the conversion of a £7m convertible note, will support Trouva in further establishing itself as the global destination for the best of independent retail. The business expanded internationally for the first time in June 2018 with the launch of 20 Berlin boutiques.

It has since grown rapidly and now brings together over 200,000 products from more than 800 independents from over 300 towns and cities, including Paris, Lisbon, Rome and Barcelona. Today, 40% of Trouva’s retailer network is made up of bricks-and-mortar shops outside of the UK, across 12 European countries.

Mandeep Singh, Co-founder at Trouva, said: “At Trouva, we envision a world where beautiful offline inventory is easily available to all. Over the last 12 months we’ve taken important steps in achieving this by further extending our platform to the greatest independents across Europe and nearly doubling our network of retailers, with top boutiques achieving hundreds of thousands of pounds of sales through Trouva.com.

“We will be using this latest investment to grow international demand and are excited to officially launch in Germany as we start to broaden our customer base and expand into new European markets. As we continue to scale rapidly, we will also continue to build a world-class team with this funding round. We’re thrilled to bring Juliet onboard as CMO with her experience developing and managing high-profile brands.”