Emmy Clothing Company, Scandinavia’s leading trade-based recirculator of pre-owned brand apparel, recently completed a seed funding round of $1.1M to accelerate growth and internationalization. The investors include a group of private investors, Nordea bank and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. The leading Finnish department store chain Stockmann and children’s brand Polarn O. Pyret are among Emmy’s early partners.

Emmy’s business idea was born three years ago, arising from a pain most of us have: what to do with the brand clothes that are in good condition but that we no longer need ourselves? Selling these items at the local flea market is time-consuming and often poorly productive, and various online fleas, auctions and social media groups generally fail to make a difference.

“As long as effortless ways to recirculation are not available, people too easily choose the worst alternative: throwing items to waste”, notesJuha Mattsson, CEO of Emmy. He continues: “Recently we’ve also read in the papers how different charity donation batches may have ended up in Africa or elsewhere to distort the local clothing market and industry. The best scenario would be for people to only buy products that are long-lasting and sustainable, and then to recirculate unnecessary items locally. We harness the market forces to achieve this.”

Emmy’s concept builds on making selling and buying second hand easier than in any other way. Anyone who wants to sell can leave their quality brand clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories to Emmy’s collection points. Emmy takes care of everything else: manually inspecting, sorting, photographing and selling the items at the Emmy online store. The two week return policy guarantees safe and easy shopping, and the sellers get up to 60% of all that gets sold. At the moment the company has a total of 20 collection points, located typically at malls, and covering major demographic areas in Finland.

“We've clearly got something right as we are growing 20–30% month-to-month at the moment”, Mattsson says. “This is why we are setting our eyes on international markets. We believe that all our customers will benefit from an international coverage and aim at building an internationally recognized consumer brand.”

Also investors, retailers and clothing brands are interested in Emmy’s concept. The seed round ended up amounting higher than originally planned. Also several retail and clothing brands have also wanted to cooperate with Emmy to support recycling, including Stockmann, as well as children’s wear brands Papu and Polarn O. Pyret.

The online store’s selection holds currently approx. 40 000 unique items. During the two-year history of the business, over 150 000 items have already exchanged hands. The maximum selling time is 6 months and beyond that point any non-selling items are donated to local charity organizations. Last year approx. 10 000 items were donated. 

“The most important thing is that the environment benefits. Emmy guides consumption towards sustainable and durable brands. Buying clothes becomes an investment, and the resale price of brands will begin affecting people’s choices when buying new items. At the end of the day, the amount of textile going to waste will reduce”, Mattsson says.

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Emmy is a pioneering service for consumers to effortlessly recirculate brand apparel that they no longer need. Reinventing the way people sell and buy second hand items, Emmy offers a unique, one-step service for people to wake up the money sleeping in their wardrobes. Emmy reduces self effort to minimum by taking care of sorting, inspecting, photographing, and selling pre-owned items at the Emmy online store. The owner gets up to 60% of sales, and for shoppers Emmy offers a wide selection of quality brands with compelling second hand prices.

More information:

Juha Mattsson
CEO
Emmy Clothing Company Oy
juha@emmy.fi