A year-old B2B marketplace that gives retailers a platform to buy excess inventory from surplus sellers is getting the attention of investors.

What is the Ghost B2B marketplace?

Ghost aims to give retailers a new way to liquidate surplus inventory using a marketplace platform. It has raised $30 million in new funding from Cathay Innovation. The marketplace formed about a year ago. It now has raised more than $50 million in total funding, the company says.

The B2B marketplace will use the new funds to hire for several roles in product, engineering and to continue to build out the technology features on Ghost.com. Ghost now has over 1,000 members on its platform, including some of the retailers in categories such as apparel, footwear, beauty and home goods, the company says.

The B2B marketplace intends to find an ecommerce opportunity in surplus inventory, which Ghost says is mostly a paper, email and fax industry.

“Surplus inventory continues to be one of the most significant pain points for retailers and brands who have historically suffered from limited, inefficient and archaic liquidation options,” the company says. “In 2022, over $500 billion of excess inventory was sold at discount retailers, expected to grow to $830 billion by 2030 — while over $163 billion is discarded annually. The problem is becoming more complicated as supply chain issues continue to arise and demand becomes more difficult to predict.”

The B2B marketplace platform has digital tools and features for buyers that include:

• Inventory matching
• Bidding
• Logistics and payments

Ghost B2B marketplace seller tools and features include:

• Digitally matching inventory lists
• Negotiation and bid acceptance
• Next-day payment after shipping
• Shipping support

“We are leveraging data science and technology to solve a problem that has previously been addressed with phone calls and fax machines,” said Josh Kaplan, co-CEO of Ghost.

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