Our Investment in Max Retail: Data Infrastructure for Efficient and Productive Retail Markets
This article originally appeared on StandUp Ventures on May 24, 2024.
Transforming idle inventory into profit for independent retailers
While our initial seed investment was made about a year ago, we are proud to announce that our portfolio company Max Retail has since closed a $15M USD Series A led by marketplace investor Nosara Capital. The round quickly came together after a year of exceptional growth, and saw participation from Rethink Impact, as well as existing investors M13, The Artemis Fund, and of course, ourselves at StandUp Ventures.
Independent retail shops sit on an average of 22% excess inventory at any given time, representing ~$50K-$200K of financial losses each year.
For small businesses that are often the pillars of their communities (& frequently women-owned!) these losses are hugely impactful. Before Max Retail, options to recuperate them were extremely limited (discounting items far below cost, sending to consignment, or donating for a tax write-off).
After spending a decade as a distributor for independent retail and co-owning a small boutique with Morgan Bodstrom (Max Retail Co-founder and Chief People Officer), CEO and Co-founder Melodie van der Baan was passionate about solving this $600B excess inventory problem.
Alone, a single store in a small town with one or two sizes of a SKU isn’t meaningful enough to engage with for zero inventory marketplaces or online retailers, but in aggregate, Max Retail’s network of 2,000+ retailers and real-time data acts seamlessly as a single source of new and often hard-to-find supply. Bringing these items online exponentially increases the pool of potential buyers, resulting in immediate cash relief and payouts 4–8x higher than the status quo of liquidation.
And the proof is in the pudding! 89% of active sellers are selling inventory every single month, with some sellers making upwards of $250k per year. GMV has exploded 4x YoY, with an incredible 40% of new retailer leads coming from existing customers.
Our view is that the macro omni-channel opportunity for real-time inventory, pricing, and sales data across the normally siloed brick-and-mortar independent retail market is virtually limitless. Alongside their AI-powered pricing and item allocation engines, Max Retail is able to pay sellers the maximum value possible for excess inventory, and help retailers understand inventory performance and the market value of every item and SKU they list in real time.
By laying the groundwork with infrastructure required for a more efficient and productive retail market, Max Retail is able to get the right products to the right buyers at the right time, place and price.
We’re so excited to continue supporting the incredible founders Melodie van der Baan, Morgan Bodstrom, and Damon Ciarelli on their journey to support small independent retailers and the retail economy at large.
Onwards and upwards!
