TROVE

Andy Ruben was Walmart's Chief Sustainability Officer before starting Trove. He watched brands launch sustainability pledges with zero operational backbone to support them.

Trove was his answer: give major brands a white-label platform so they could run their own secondhand stores without building the tech from scratch. The first major partner was Patagonia's Worn Wear program in 2017.

B2B SaaS with a marketplace layer. Trove charges brands a platform fee plus a revenue share on resale transactions.

Brands keep their customer data, their brand experience, and the secondhand margin — Trove handles the tech, authentication, logistics integration, and inventory processing. The model scales with partner volume, not employee headcount.

["Branded resale platform", "Trade-in and buyback tools", "Authentication and condition grading infrastructure", "White-label resale storefronts", "Recommerce analytics dashboard"]

Land flagship brands in each category and use them as proof points for the next. REI in outdoor, Patagonia in sustainability, Arc'teryx in premium technical gear, Lululemon in athleisure.

Each major brand win opens the next door. Trove also pushes into international markets through existing partner brands that operate globally.

Convincing brand executives that secondhand will grow their business rather than cannibalize new product sales. The data says resale brings back lapsed customers and introduces new ones, but the internal politics at major brands are slow.

Sales cycles are 12-18 months and require buy-in from ecommerce, sustainability, and finance teams simultaneously.

G2 Venture Partners led the Series C in 2021. Other backers include Prelude Ventures and a range of sustainability-focused venture funds.

REI Co-op also made a strategic investment, cementing the partnership between its branded resale program and Trove's infrastructure.