Dealflow | May 16, 2021

Thrilling raises $8.5 million for secondhand fashion marketplace

Dennis Price
ImpactAlpha Editor

Dennis Price

ImpactAlpha, May 16 – L.A.-based Thrilling has raised $8.5 million to expand its secondhand fashion marketplace. The Black and Asian-owned startup helps small vintage and second-hand shops in the U.S. sell their products online. Roughly 95% of the more than 300 sellers on Thrilling’s platform are women and/or Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

Prelude Ventures led the round. Defy, Congruent Ventures, Urban Us, Closed Loop, Phoenix Rising and DLA Piper Venture also participated.

Founder Shilla Kim-Parker’s grandparents owned a dry cleaner’s, one of the first Black-owned businesses in their small town in North Carolina. “Having grown up among small business owners, especially in and around apparel, I heard firsthand how they felt left behind by the tech industry,” Kim-Parker told dot.LA.