DoNew, a Chinese e-commerce upstart focused on sneaker trading and resales, has secured nearly USD 10 million (RMB 69 million) in Series A funding. The investment round was led by SIG China, 36Kr reports.
Launched in 2016, DoNew began as a platform to sell trendy streetwear, before the firm recognized a larger opportunity in sneakers and pivoted accordingly. The company now operates a platform where people can buy and sell sneakers, with charts and details showing the price fluctuations of particular shoes, similar to a stock trading app or the US-based StockX app, which also specializes in sneaker and fashion resales.
As is characteristic of Chinese startups, DoNew is vertically integrated, providing warehousing services for sellers and buyers on its platform. Sellers can store their products in a warehouse and save on logistics costs as DoNew handles the delivery. Storage fees are waived when the goods are sold via DoNew’s platform, and a small fee per pair of shoes is charged for sales on third-party platforms.
The platform also plans to launch pre-sale shoe coupons and spot coupons for upcoming shoe releases. For example, users can lock in a trade at a given price for a sneaker that will be released in a month. Similar to a spot contract in traditional financial trading, the buyer benefits if the price of the sneaker rises upon its release. Users will also be able to trade these coupons on DoNew, rather than the shoes themselves, increasing the possibilities for transacting on the platform.
The company is currently on track for RMB 50 million (USD 7.2 million) in GMV in May, with the average price of sneakers sold at RMB 1,500. DoNew expects to consistently hit RMB 10 million (USD 1.45 million) in weekly GMV once its pre-sale and spot coupon features are launched. Meanwhile, it currently counts about 2 millions fans on its social media channels, and its next step is to funnel these users to its app. Around 80% of its users are born in 1995 or after, and most are male.
This investment comes one month after China’s largest sneaker trading platform Poizon raised a round valuing it at USD 1 billion (RMB 6.9 billion). Globally, the market size of sneaker resales is worth USD 6 billion (RMB 41.5 billion), according to StockX data cited by HighSnobiety.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.