Chrono24 Watch Marketplace Gets $1 Billion Valuation – WWD

There’s a brand new billion-dollar darling with a rising resale angle. 

Chrono24, a digital market platform for brand new and pre-owned luxurious watches, raised greater than 100 million euros, or $118 million, from a gaggle of top-shelf inventors, scoring a valuation of greater than $1 billion. 

The Sequence C fundraising spherical was led by non-public fairness standout Basic Atlantic and included funds from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton chief govt officer Bernard Arnault’s Aglaé Ventures, Perception Companions and Sprints Capital.

Based mostly in Karlsruhe, Germany, the corporate has raised greater than 200 million euros up to now.  

Chrono24 plans to make use of the brand new cash to deepen its presence within the 100 nations the place it already operates and to maintain ramping up within the pre-owned watch market. 

That places the corporate in sync with the rising emphasis on resale — which stretches from sustainability-minded shoppers to buyers and contains The RealReal Inc., ThredUp, Poshmark and extra. Platform firms are additionally in vogue, sitting on the crossroads between patrons and promoting and facilitating the transaction. 

Chrono24 was based in 2003 as a peer-to-peer market and has gained actual scale because it has advanced. {The marketplace} carries about 500,000 watches from greater than 3,000 retailers and 30,000-plus non-public sellers, reaching higher than 9 million distinctive guests a month. 

Chrono24 will proceed to be led by founder and co-CEO Tim-Stracke, co-CEO Holger Felgner and chief monetary officer Stephan Kniewasser.

Stracke stated, “As originators of the digital market idea inside the luxurious watch world, we’ve constructed a platform that not solely helps and encourages evolving client habits, but additionally gives invaluable proof of idea to an trade that has historically shied away from disruption.”

And Jörn Nikolay, managing director chargeable for Basic Atlantic’s operations in Germany, stated: “Chrono24 has develop into a world pioneer within the creation of a cross-border on-line market for luxurious watches, with an modern mannequin underpinned by transparency and sustainability.”

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