Good Buy Gear Raises $6M Series A For Second-hand Baby, Children’s Gear

If you’re a parent, you probably have at least one baby, toddler or children’s item that came from a community page, Facebook’s marketplace or even Craig’s List.

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Good Buy Gear wants to make sure you are able to continue finding those items that are gently used, and when you are done using one or all, the company enables you to sell it on its marketplace. The best part? You don’t have to meet a stranger in a parking lot for either transaction.

Dubbed a “recommerce marketplace,” the Denver-based company closed on a $6 million Series A round of funding, led by Revolution Ventures with participation from existing investors Access Venture Partners and Relay Ventures. The company has raised a total of $8 million in funding, which includes $2.8 million in previous seed rounds.

As part of the investment, Clara Sieg, partner at Revolution Ventures, is joining the board of Good Buy Gear.

Kristin Langenfeld, co-founder and CEO, and Jessica Crothers, co-founder and COO, started the company in 2016 to offer second-hand and open-box items via a resale marketplace. Good Buy Gear added advanced technology, efficient processes, trusted verification and buyer intelligence to a supply chain that previously didn’t exist, Langenfeld told Crunchbase News.

The company ships nationwide, as well as offers delivery in Denver and Dallas. If you are selling merchandise, Good Buy Gear picks up the items and uses technology to process, clean and perform a quality check before advertising the items on its website. The seller gets paid when the item sells.

“The streamlined review and verification process is what makes Good Buy Gear unique,” Sieg said in an interview. “They have become a trusted marketplace where buyers can have confidence in what they are buying.”

In addition, the company provides an outlet for a buyer to become a seller, with high repeat usage possible on both sides, she added.

The recommerce of baby and children’s gear has a lot of potential, but those items are often collecting dust in someone’s basement or storage space, Langenfeld said. As a result, the market is at about $8 billion right now, but has the potential to increase to $31 billion by 2024. In fact, the average household is sitting on $2,000 worth of goods, she added.

“The way people buy used items is so archaic: you go on these community group sites or meet someone in a parking lot,” Langenfeld said. “The thing about baby gear, too, is that the kids hardly use it. Some items may only get three months of use before your child outgrows it. There is so much potential in value.”

The new funding is intended for product evolution, strategic partnerships and market expansion to provide pickup and delivery outside of Denver and Dallas. The company plans on partnering with large retailers to gain access to their returns and open-box inventory as a way to offer a wider range of items.

Since 2016, Good Buy Gear has grown, including experiencing four times growth since March, Sieg said. The company plans to bring on five new people to complement its 11-person workforce. It is also working with partners to provide more sustainable options so that inventory doesn’t end up in the dumpster.

“We see this as one of the last vertical categories that did not have a marketplace built around it because of the difficulty of shipping, acquisition and verification of bulky goods,” Sieg added. “It is important that parents trust what they are getting and is why the verification team matters so much. There is a huge opportunity because of the conversion from buyer and seller, and we want to provide the best-in-class way to do it.”

Feature photo of Kristin Langenfeld and Jessica Crothers courtesy of Good Buy Gear
Blogroll illustration: Li-Anne Dias