Dubai’s The Luxury Closet closes growth round with $11 million, acquires Hong Kong-based Guiltless

The Luxury Closet, a Dubai-based ecommerce platform for pre-owned luxury goods including watches, handbags, clothing, shoes, and accessories, has raised $2.3 million in fresh funds to close its growth funding round with $11 million, the startup announced today. This second closing of the round was led by Knuru Capital, a newly established Abu Dhabi based VC.

The startup had raised $8.7 million as first tranche of this round in July last year. The first closing was led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), and joined by Wamda Capital, Precinct Partners, TechInvest, Saned, and Equitrust.

The Luxury Closet with the investment also announced acquisition of Guiltless, a Hong Kong-based ecommerce website that also used to sell pre-owned luxury products. The Dubai-based startup with this acquisition has expanded to Hong Kong.

Kunal Kapoor, founder & CEO of The Luxury Closet, commenting on the occasion, said, “2019 is proving to be a very exciting year for us. The Luxury Closet has built one of the best catalogs in the world, and we are now taking it international. The acquisition of operations of Guiltless.com will provide us with a strong foothold in the rapidly growing Asian market and enable us to offer delivery, and concierge services to our customers in Hong Kong. Welcoming a value-add fund like Knuru [Capital] is excellent news for the company and it will help us continue to disrupt the online luxury space globally.”

Alain Dib, CEO of Knuru Capital, said, “We are delighted to have The Luxury Closet as one of the first investments in our newly established fund. Our purpose is to help fund the growth of the world’s most promising digital disruptors and The Luxury Closet aligns with that goal.”

“We back companies with the clear potential to become true global players and The Luxury Closet strategy of sourcing regionally and selling globally perfectly matches this ambition,” addedBassim Haidar, Chairman of Knuru Capital.

According to the statement, MEVP has sold a part of its stake as part of this transaction. The sold stake is from MEVP’s first fund MEVF I and will provide “its limited partners an initial return on their investment.” The statement also noted that MEVP still remains the biggest shareholder in The Luxury Closet.

Walid Mansour, Partner at MEVP, said, “The Luxury Closet is disrupting not only the ~10bn USD personal luxury consumption in the GCC but also opening-up the ultra-valuable GCC closets to a fast-growing global demand for unique pre-loved luxury items. Knuru’s investment only serves to underscore our bullishness and confidence in the success of The Luxury Closet.”