Threadflip, a San Francisco-based online consignment startup, will shut down as of midnight Wednesday night, the site told users today. Founded in 2011, the company had gathered 1.5 million users and raised $21.1 million in venture funding from Norwest Ventures Partners, Shasta Ventures, Baseline Ventures and First Round Capital.
An email sent Tuesday to users from CEO and co-founder Manik Singh and co-founder and CTO Jeff Shiau explained that Threadflip would partner with Le Tote, another San Francisco-based e-commerce site focused on fashion.
Details of the partnership were not explained. It’s unclear whether Le Tote is acquiring any part of Threadflip or merely taking on its customers. Threadflip users were offered a 60% discount on their first month of Le Tote membership. (The discount expires at the end of January.) In November, Le Tote, known as the “Netflix for fashion” raised $15 million in Series B funding from Accelerate IT Ventures.
Rakesh Tondon, CEO of Le Tote, confirmed the partnership and provided the following statement to Coins2Day:
This partnership allows us to bring more women than ever that ultimate level of customization and discovery to their online fashion experience. It is a huge opportunity for us to keep growing as a business and providing more resources for customers’ ever-changing life and fashion needs.
Threadflip operated in a crowded market with well-funded competitors, including Poshmark, ThredUp, and The RealReal. Some have carved out a niche from eBay (EBAY), the dominant player for online secondhand sales, by focusing on luxury designer goods.
Threadflip had initially tried to differentiate itself with a “White Glove” service that handled the annoying parts of posting and selling clothing online. The company also tried to tap influencers to sell their clothing and used a slick app to make posting items easier.
Coins2Day has contacted Threadflip and will update with more details as they become available.
