Trouva bags $10m to “save the high street” and help shoppers find local boutiques

Trouva, the online marketplace for independent boutiques, has raised $10m of Series A funding in a bid to “save the high street.”

Nominated for both Venture Funded Business of the Year and Retail Business of the Year at the Startups Awards 2017, the London-based business was primarily backed by BGF Ventures, Index Ventures and Octopus Investments.

Additional investors in this round included early backer Robin Klein of LocalGlobe, Playfair Capital, Downing Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

While other individual investors in Trouva include the former CTO of Farfetch and NET-A-PORTER, David Lindsay, Troy Collins co-founder of Secret Escapes, William Reeve co-founder of LOVEFiLM, Carlos Morgado former Group CTO at Just Eat, and Wendy Becker, former CEO of Jack Wills.

Helping shoppers find “hidden gems”, Trouva has built a technology platform which empowers handpicked offline independent stores to compete with retail multiples and e-commerce giants, while enabling customers to scour a huge array of over 80,000 distinctive, design-led products.

Amid an accelerating industry shift to digital and omni-channel, the platform also offers real time ‘click and collect’, one-hour delivery (it has a record-breaking delivery time of just 22 minutes) and worldwide shipping.

With more than 350 UK-based independent shops and boutiques in over 100 towns and cities on-site, Trouva will look to rapidly expand its network of stores over the coming months.

The Startups 100-ranked business, previously called StreetHub, will establish a new base in Lisbon, alongside its existing London HQ, as well as tripling the size of its tech team.

Founded by Maxim Berglund, Alex Loizou and Mandeep Singh in 2013 and launching two years later, the trio claim they only accept a minority of stores that apply to join their community – to ensure a high standard of shops onsite.

Mandeep Singh, co-founder and CEO of Trouva, said:

“We will be using the investment to further develop our unique platform at existing stores within the Trouva community, while funding expansion to new shops and boutiques across the UK, and ultimately further afield too.

Harry Briggs, partner at BGF Ventures, said:

“I love the passion that independent boutiques bring to their craft – discovering wonderful products and creating a place that’s a joy to visit. Everyone’s discovered a boutique somewhere that’s full of things that feel made for their home.

“Trouva helps those boutiques reach more customers, and helps customers further-afield keep up with their favourite boutiques’ latest ‘finds’.

“Discovery is so hard in homewares, and we believe that Trouva could help people across the world discover those unique, meaningful products that make home feel like home – while enabling the most extraordinary independent boutiques to not only survive, but thrive.”