Revive Raises $3.5M For Its Sustainable Solution That Drives Revenue And Addresses The Growing Returns Crisis For Brands And Retailers

The online apparel industry is grappling with a high return rate of 24.4%, a figure that has risen by over 50% since 2020. A significant portion of this returned inventory becomes unsellable and is often destined for landfills. Revive is a data-driven platform designed to convert this excess inventory into sellable assets. The company will undertake the necessary adjustments—be it repairs, cleaning, or repackaging—to restore the distressed inventory to a sellable condition, enabling it to be listed and sold through any channel preferred by the brand. This approach spares brands and retailers the hassle of processing, storing, and disposing of these items, allowing them to recover a portion of the original value that would otherwise be completely written off, thereby directly enhancing their profit margins and bottom line It is estimated that the total value of inventory poised for discard is nearly $1T. To date, Revive has processed merchandise with a total value of $23M

AlleyWatch caught up with Revive Founder and CEO Allison Lee to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…

Who were your investors and how much did you raise?

This round is led by Equal Ventures. Hustle Fund, Coalition Operators, Banter Capital, and Charge Ventures participated among many others.

Tell us about the product or service that Revive offers.

The fashion and retail industries face a significant dilemma: a substantial portion of inventory becomes unstockable during the distribution journey, leading to considerable financial losses and negative environmental impact. Research indicates nearly 11 percent of asset value disappears when brand inventory gets minorly damaged during the return process. These items often end up accumulating in ‘mystery’ boxes without any actionable data captured on why these items are taken out of circulation.

(Re)vive addresses these challenges head-on with a proprietary technology that powers both data and physical operations needed in recovering this neglected category. Through a data-enabled platform, (Re)vive digitizes, inspects and services brands’ mystery boxes, transforming them into merchandisable inventory. (Re)vive offers brands a ‘source of truth’ dashboard to realize the highest asset value, as Revived inventory is listed and sold across brand-approved sales channels. (Re)vive handles everything from digitization and inspection to assigning garment services that maximize asset value while minimizing costs for brands. Their platform streamlines the process, alleviating operational burdens for brands and ensuring the highest profitability and scalability. Additionally, (Re)vive partners with brands to merchandise refurbished items across a customized mix of sales platforms that bring the highest price to the Revived inventory.

What inspired the start of Revive?

When Revive’s legacy business, Hemster, offered Repair Portals to the brand clients, we observed that every brand had damages to be repaired in their stores and warehouses. That sparked a huge interest within our team to investigate and learn about the supply chain challenges around idle inventory, especially around returned inventory.

How is Revive different?

(Re)vive addresses inventory challenges head-on with a proprietary technology that powers both data and physical operations in managing this neglected category. Through a data-enabled platform, (Re)vive offers brands a ‘source of truth’ to understand their unstockable inventory and make informed decisions throughout the supply chain. By digitizing, inspecting and servicing these items, (Re)vive transforms mystery boxes of inventory into merchandisable inventory, and brands can start to recover financial value of previously-dead items.

What market does Revive target and how big is it?

Returned and unstockable inventory. Brands are grappling with mounting operational costs associated with processing, storing, and disposing returns, which can amount to as much as $15+ per item. With a growing demand for sustainable fashion from consumers, Revive sees a huge opportunity for future-minded brands to leverage their once-disposed, damaged product into a coveted item.

What’s your business model?

Revive works with brands to set a cost ceiling to make sure refurbishing cost does not exceed their margin room. Then Revive maximizes the asset value by connecting Revived inventory with sales channels to take a commission per sale.

How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?

We believe that consumer behavior around returns will get accelerated through any potential economic downturn. In that market, our refurbished (and sightly discounted) units will become even more desirable.

What was the funding process like?

We were not looking to raise an institutional round. However, when we met the Equal Ventures team, we immediately could tell that they have spent a long time researching and learning about the true pain points of the retail industry. Their deep knowledge led to insightful conversations and meaningful introductions to other portfolio companies, and eventually we wanted them to lead our latest round.

What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?

Since our business has been evolving for a while, our business model is a bit more complicated than a typical seed deal. Making sure that new investors can understand the potential and differentiation of Revive took a couple rounds of revisions.

What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?

We had multiple big clients signed for 2024 launches, which helped them underwrite the future growth projection.

What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?

We hope to deliver even more revived items back into the market. So far we have grown almost 10x within this year.

What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?

Make sure you meet and build relationships with potential investors so that you both can see what the working chemistry would be like!

Where do you see the company going now over the near term?

We want to be the household name for idle inventory. Whenever a brand sees a mystery box in their stores or warehouses, we want to be in their minds too.

What’s your favorite summer destination in and around the city?

Hiking in upstate New York, near New Paltz.