When apparel industry veterans Dee Murthy and Josh Kaplan founded Ghost as a B2B marketplace for excess retail merchandise three years ago, they figured industry buyers as well as sellers wanted a way to conduct trades behind the scenes.
Merchants don’t necessarily want to broadcast how their inventory is not selling at retail and may not want to sell to competing channels. So, Ghost operates as a members-only marketplace for more than 6,000 participants, where retailers in apparel, footwear, beauty, home goods and other product categories can exert control over where their surplus and wholesale merchandise goes.
Ghost attracts investors along with marketplace users
That control combined with the helpful buy-and-sell features of the Ghost marketplace, including logistics services, has attracted investors as well as marketplace participants.
“Ghost’s customers shared with us that they love the platform’s user-friendly interface, advanced matching technology, and ability to maintain brand control over where their products end up,” says Ian Friedman, partner and managing director at L Catterton Growth Fund.
L Catterton led Ghost’s recent $40 million Series C funding round, which, according to Crunchbase, brought Ghost Inc.’s total funding to $95 million. Other investors include USV, Cathay Innovation, Equal Ventures and Eniac.
Since completing its Series B $30 million funding round in August 2023, Ghost says it has “significantly scaled its platform through investments in infrastructure, AI, and international expansion.” The company, which has over 100 employees, adds that its marketplace platform includes a “data analytics engine that handles optimal pricing, volume, and forecasting, while handling the end-to-end logistics associated with the transaction.”
Ghost lets sellers control distribution channels
“Set the price you want to get for your product; we’ll take care of the rest,” Ghost says on its marketplace website at Ghst.io.
It also asserts that sellers can “control which distribution channels, retailers, and geographies your inventory is sold in” and adds, “Our platform is only accessible to approved members — we’ll never publish who buys and sells on Ghost.”
Ghost displays on its website testimonials from marketplace buyers and sellers identified only by their general industry role, such as “direct brand seller,” “wholesale reseller,” or “Amazon reseller,” and a blurred headshot photograph.
In one testimonial, a “direct brand seller” says: “We weren’t willing to be associated with off-price markets, and Ghost gives us the peace of mind of who is buying our goods and where they end up.”
Going forward, Murthy says “L Catterton’s global network and deep expertise in retail, technology and sustainable growth will significantly support our efforts to innovate and continue growing the Ghost ecosystem.”
Before Ghost, Murthy co-founded “streetwear-inspired” apparel brand Young & Reckless and Kaplan was CEO of apparel brand New Republic., where he remains as a board advisor.
Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].
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