Kicks Crew Secures $6 Million in New Funding as It Aims to Grow US Business
Kicks Crew has secured a new round of financing.
The sneaker and apparel e-commerce platform said on Wednesday that it has closed $6 million in Series A funding led by Gobi Partners, Pacific Century Group, and Complex China.
According to Kicks Crew founders Ross Adrian Yip and Johnny Mak, this new capital will be funneled into growing the company’s market share in the U.S. “We will be investing heavily into technology and recruiting top talent to join our product and engineering teams,” they told FN. “We also recognize the need for us to be known by our customers – so we’ll be investing heavily into building a new brand and communications team to raise brand awareness and establish brand partnerships, as well as open a new headquarters in Los Angeles.”
Founded in 2008, Kicks Crew works directly with retailers of the brands it carries through a B2B2C marketplace model, which according to Mak, helps to guarantee each product’s authenticity. Today, the platform offers over 400,000 unique SKUs and sells a wide range of brands including Yeezy, Jordan, Nike, Adidas, and more.
Fio Cheung
This operating model proved to be beneficial during the pandemic when more retailers were looking to go direct-to-consumer due to store closures and mounting inventory pressure. “We offer a selling experience that kept retailers hands-free from matters such as catalog, photos, customer acquisition, customer service, shipping, exchanges and returns,” Mak said. “In April 2020, we saw a holiday season’s worth of sales in just one month, which caught the attention of Gobi Partners, who is now our lead investor.”
“This well-timed investment is a huge step towards our goal of providing a best-in-class customer experience – by having the widest selection and fastest shipping speed, and for our retailer sellers – a scalable and frictionless selling experience allowing them to seamlessly reach a global audience,” added Yip.
Looking ahead, the Kicks Crew team said that in addition to its planned L.A. headquarters, it will work towards expanding into other markets such as Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia while also engaging directly with its audience through livestream events to better understand their needs.
The team also told FN that it will work on reinforcing its authenticity guarantee by applying blockchain technology that will allow order and QC information to be retained and accessed.
“An exciting year lies ahead of us, and we are going full speed to achieve massive growth,” Mak and Yip added.
Courtesy of Kicks Crew
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