LONDON — BrandAlley, a British off-price online retailer, has acquired a majority stake in the rare sneaker resale platform The Edit LDN.
Following the acquisition, The Edit LDN will be restructured through a formal process and operate within BrandAlley’s back-end infrastructure.
Financial terms of the deal were not discussed.
The Edit LDN, which counts New York Giants captain Xavier McKinney as its brand ambassador, said while it saw exponential growth since its inception in 2020, it faced cash flow constraints in the last quarter of 2023 amid a challenging trading environment that saw e-commerce giants like Farfetch and Matches being sold at a fraction of their peak market valuations.
Moses Rashid, founder and chief executive officer of The Edit LDN, who will stay after the restructure, said: “Although 2023 was another year of positive growth and revenue, it has been a difficult period with financial challenges being accelerated by external funding sources that we had on our creditor books.
“In order to continue to achieve our growth goals, it was crucial to act fast to find a long-term partner who sees the potential to take Edit LDN global and offers the operational infrastructure required for sustainable growth….This move will bring confidence to our community, suppliers and the reseller industry as a whole,” added Rashid.
BrandAlley, which recently acquired its own logistics operation and a stake in luxury resale platform Sign of the Times, said the acquisition of The Edit LDN provides the opportunity to “tap into a more youthful customer demographic and their substantial community of engaged followers” and “caters to a diverse range of style preferences and budgets and opens The Edit LDN to a much wider premium audience.”
Rob Feldmann, CEO of BrandAlley, added: “With our 8 million strong members-only database, our own dedicated in-house warehouse operations, and customer service team, we are confident we can provide full operational support across our group of companies and drive profitable growth of The Edit LDN globally through Rashid and his team.”
In November, The Edit LDN received investments from soccer player Ollie Watkins and sports presenter Josh Denzel, in addition to $4.8 million in seed round funding led by the New York-based Regah Ventures at the beginning of 2023 to help scale its business in the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as in the U.S.
