Seed Round Led by Equal Ventures and Hustle Fund
(Re)vive, the pioneering solution addressing the challenges of unstockable and returned inventory for future-minded brands, announced it has raised $3.5 million in Seed funding, led by new investor Equal Ventures and existing investor Hustle Fund. Banter Capital, Coalition Operators, Mute VC, and Veronica Chou also joined the round alongside existing investors Charge VC, Everywhere VC, and Hyphen Capital.
The fashion and retail industries face a significant dilemma: a substantial portion of inventory becomes unstockable during the distribution journey, leading to considerable financial losses and negative environmental impact. Research indicates nearly 11 percent of asset value disappears when brand inventory gets minorly damaged during the return process. These items often end up accumulating in ‘mystery’ boxes without any actionable data captured on why these items are taken out of circulation.
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“Brands are grappling with mounting operational costs associated with processing, storing, and disposing returns, which can amount to as much as $15+ per item,” said Allison Lee, founder and CEO of (Re)vive. “However, with a growing demand for sustainable fashion from consumers, we see a huge opportunity for future-minded brands to leverage their once-disposed, damaged product into a coveted item. We are excited to welcome Equal as our new lead investor, as they also recognized an industry-wide need for an inventory optimization tool from their years of market research.”
(Re)vive, formerly known as Hemster, addresses these challenges head-on with a proprietary technology that powers both data and physical operations needed in recovering this neglected category. Through a data-enabled platform, (Re)vive digitizes, inspects and services brands’ mystery boxes, transforming them into merchandisable inventory. (Re)vive offers brands a ‘source of truth’ dashboard to realize the highest asset value, as Revived inventory is listed and sold across brand-approved sales channels.
“There’s almost $1 trillion of inventory out there that brands and retailers don’t know how to deal with and Allison and team have found an incredibly interesting wedge into this market,” said Chelsea Zhang, investor at Equal Ventures. “(Re)vive is filling a void and injecting value back into the ecosystem in a way that no one else in the value chain can. We are incredibly excited to support her as she goes after this opportunity.”
(Re)vive handles everything from digitization and inspection to assigning garment services that maximize asset value while minimizing costs for brands. Their platform streamlines the process, alleviating operational burdens for brands and ensuring the highest profitability and scalability. Additionally, (Re)vive partners with brands to merchandise refurbished items across a customized mix of sales platforms that bring the highest price to the Revived inventory.
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Eric Bahn, co-founder and general partner at Hustle Fund, commented, “‘Revive’ is such an appropriate name for this company, on multiple fronts. First, it describes the core business well, where this platform helps large retail apparel brands to upcycle garments and deadstock into new products, thereby substantially reducing apparel waste. But it also accurately describes Allison Lee herself. Allison is one of the most resilient humans I’ve ever met, and she’s gone through hell and back to create this outstanding company. What a thrill to be on this journey with Allison and her team.”
Heston Berkman, partner at Banter Capital, added, “Casting our support behind (Re)vive isn’t just about backing a business, it’s about backing a game-changer in sustainability and retail. With Allison Lee at the helm, (Re)vive is not just breathing new life into inventory, it’s turning a cost center into a revenue generator. It’s not just innovation, it’s a retail revolution, and we’re thrilled to be along for the ride.”
In the last 12 months, (Re)vive’s revenues and processed units have both grown by more than 10x. The new funds will be used to further fuel growth and strengthen the (Re)vive platform to maximize and realize asset value of deadstock inventory for the retail industry.
