Hurr raises £4 million funding for expansion

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Dec 13, 2021

Hurr’s desire to “scale up its disruption of women’s fashion” has been given a boost. The London-based fashion rental platform has raised $5.4m (£4.1m) in seed funding from Octopus Ventures to expand its operations.

Specifically, Hurr will invest in technology and grow both its subscribers and the number of partners that it works with, supporting its push for a circular economy in the fashion industry.

Since launching in 2019, Hurr has built a hybrid business model featuring more than 85 exclusive fashion partners and a white-label service that powers rental for leading retailers such as Selfridges Rental.

It also operates physical space in the London department store, and announced an industry-first partnership with global resale platform Depop this year. Last month, it also launched an autumn/winter partnership with Timberland, marking the outerwear brand's entry into the rental market.

It currently claims annual turnover of £1.9 million.

Victoria Prew, CEO and Founder of Hurr said: “I am absolutely convinced that the future of fashion is circular, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this accelerating consumer shift . In the UK alone, customers spend £2.7 billion on outfits they wear just once while more than $400 billion of clothing is discarded across the globe each year – another shocking statistic.

“As a millennial, I’m part of a generation that loves shared ownership. We’ve all witnessed the rise of disruptive tech-first businesses such as Airbnb and Uber and if we can rent our houses and cars, why not our wardrobes.”

Octopus, which has also backed similar businesses, including peer-to-peer resale platform Depop, said: “Hurr is perfectly placed to capitalise on the shift towards new models of ownership and spearhead the transition to a more climate-friendly fashion industry.”

Matt Chandler, Consumer Investor at Octopus Ventures, added: “By operating the critical logistics functions needed for rental, it is able to provide a full-stack rental solution to existing brands, which in turn feeds the Hurr platform with amazing breadth and depth of supply.

“We see a huge opportunity for scale and are excited to leverage our experience working with Depop as we partner with Victoria and her team.”