#Interview
The Hamburg start-up company smatch relies on a marketplace for excess fashion. Investors such as Transition, 42Cap and 10x Founders have already invested around 10 million in the startup, which was founded in 2022. 20 employees currently work for smatch.
The Hamburg start-up company smatch relies on a marketplace for excess fashion. Investors such as Transition, 42Cap and 10x Founders have already invested around 10 million in the startup, which was founded in 2022. 20 employees currently work for smatch.
The Hamburg startup smatchfounded in 2022 by Max Groberg and Hans-Martin Vetter, positions itself as a B2B marketplace that “connects global fashion brands and retailers to trade unsold inventory quickly, discreetly and profitably.”
The English investor Transition, 42Cap and 10x Founders as well as Noel Kinder, Nigel Griffiths and Achim Berg recently invested 7.3 million euros in the young company. Around 2.5 million had previously flowed into the company – including from 42Cap, Green Generation Fund and 10X Founders.
In an interview with deutsche-startups.de, founder Hans-Martin Vetter speaks in detail about the state of affairs in his company.
How would you smatch your grandmother explain?
Overproduction is a fundamental problem in the fashion industry: fashion items are usually produced many months before they go on sale. However, since it is difficult to predict exactly what consumers will want to buy in a few months, this time delay leads to considerable planning uncertainty for brands and retailers. Their response to the uncertainty so far? Overproduction – i.e. “a little more of everything”. In Europe alone, this means that fashion stocks worth 300 billion euros annually are either only sold at significant discounts or remain completely unsold. This “something more” has become a serious problem – both economically and ecologically. smatch stands for stock – English for stock – match. We are building a B2B marketplace to trade these inventory in the fashion sector. Operating globally, we use artificial intelligence to efficiently bring together the right business partners for each product.
Was this your concept from the beginning?
We were convinced from the start that an efficient marketplace was the right approach to address such a complex, global problem at scale. Since the start in 2023, however, we have been able to learn a lot: about the different needs of market participants, cultural differences, administrative hurdles of cross-border trade and legal changes. Since 2024 it has been clear: With the Ecodesign Guideline, the EU prohibits the destruction of unsold new goods in the fashion sector. Changes in the way we deal with excess inventory are therefore mandatory – we continually iterate our model in order to offer the best solution on the market.
How has smatch developed since it was founded?
We now have 20 employees and were able to record eight-figure marketplace sales this year. We are very pleased about this – we were able to increase tenfold compared to the previous year. For us, this is a strong signal of the need in the market and a great motivation to use smatch to have significant leverage on sustainable change in the fashion industry.
Most recently you were able to collect millions. How did you get in touch with your investors?
42Cap was recommended to us by one of our business angels due to their strong commerce tech expertise. Probably no one has a more exciting network than the team at 10x Founders. Transition and GGF were recommended to us as experts and “contrarian thinkers” in the area of sustainability. It was important to us to find real experts for smatch in the respective dimensions.
Please take a look back: What really went wrong in the last few years?
A lot of things. We work globally. Customs and logistics issues are always initially challenging in countries that are new to us. I clearly remember being asked by customs what our “EORI number” was. We looked at each other as a team and started researching what EORI is and how we get this number. Even though we have worked in the fashion sector before, we are rethinking a lot of things with smatch. Mistakes are part of rapid growth.
And where have you done everything right so far?
Simple answer: With the team. We are extremely proud that our colleagues have decided to invest their time at smatch. We are in the fortunate position of having a major positive economic and environmental impact through our work. This motivates many employees twice as much – like Max and me too.
What general tip would you give other founders?
Don’t build for hype cycles, but out of conviction.
Where will smatch be in a year?
First and foremost for fashion brands and retailers who want to turn their inventory into sales, quickly sell surplus goods or make short-term purchases.
Startup jobs: Looking for a new challenge? In ours Job exchange You will find job advertisements from startups and companies.
