H&M has become the majority owner of re-commerce platform Sellpy after reinvesting in the company and bringing its overall stake to approximately 70 percent.

The move aims to support Sellpy’s international growth while also supporting H&M Group’s “strategic work to become fully circular,” the Swedish retail giant announced in a statement. H&M first invested in Sellpy in 2015, and has since participated in all investment rounds through its investment arm CO:LAB.

“We keep investing in Sellpy because we strongly believe in the company and the founders. Sellpy has a unique circular business model, which perfectly aligns with H&M Group’s vision to become fully circular,” Nanna Andersen, head of CO:LAB, said in a statement.

H&M becomes majority owner of Sellpy

Second-hand is one of the fastest-growing business sectors within the fashion industry and one that H&M said it wants to further explore as a means to contribute to a “closed-loop” for fashion. The resale market in the US is expected to be 1.5 times bigger than the fast-fashion market by 2028, according to second-hand fashion platform ThredUp.

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Michael Annör, CEO of Sellpy, commented: “We are excited to continue to work even closer with H&M Group to empower everyone to live circular, regardless if they live in Sweden or elsewhere. With the support of H&M Group we can continue to innovate and drive awareness and adoption of re-commerce.”

Founded in 2014, Sellpy is currently expanding its offer into a complete platform for second-hand fashion and is preparing for international expansion, starting with Germany, which H&M Group is supporting with its new investment. Since 2015, H&M Group has invested approximately 50 million Swedish krona in the company. Recently, it also bought secondaries for 92 million Swedish krona and made a follow-on investment of 40 million Swedish krona.

In addition, H&M Group said it will invest 60 million Swedish krona in two different instalments within the coming few years. When the full investment is carried through, H&M Group will have an approximate 74 percent stake in Sellpy.

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Photo credit: H&M Group