Depop bosses to cash in on takeover by US giant Etsy

£1.2bn! Not bad for a second-hand clothes app: Depop bosses to cash in on takeover by US giant Etsy

  • Simon Beckerman, a 47-year-old British-Italian entrepreneur, who was born in Milan and lives in London, founded Depop in 2011 
  • Beckerman is likely to net a tidy profit along with chief executive Maria Raga, other senior employees and backers who have supported the business
  • The deal will also rake in a generous return for venture capital firms, including General Atlantic, Creandum, Octopus Ventures and Balderton Capital

The founder of online second-hand marketplace Depop is set to net a multimillion-pound windfall after it was snapped up by US rival Etsy for £1.2billion. 

Simon Beckerman, a 47-year-old British-Italian entrepreneur, who was born in Milan and lives in London, founded Depop in 2011. 

Depop declined to reveal how much Beckerman would make from the sale, but he is likely to net a tidy profit along with his chief executive Maria Raga, other senior employees and individual entrepreneurial backers who have supported the business. 

In the money: Boss Maria Raga and founder Simon Beckerman

The deal will also rake in a generous return for venture capital firms, including General Atlantic, Creandum, Octopus Ventures and Balderton Capital. 

Beckerman started his career launching Italian magazine Pig, with his brother. They then created sunglasses brand Retrosuperfuture, now a successful Italian business. 

He soon realised the power of internet shopping, and created an online market which combined Ebay-style technology with the picture-driven social media draw of an app like Instagram. Last year, £459m worth of items were sold on Depop, including vintage clothes, hand-made garments and limited-edition attire which canny youngsters had bought from designers to sell on for a profit. The platform raked in revenues of £49m, mostly generated through commission. 

Etsy is a relative behemoth in the world of online marketplaces – it has a market value of £15billion, and has made its name attracting sellers who make their own products or sell one-of-a-kind vintage items. But the average age of its users is 39, and it has been desperate to pull in the younger generation. This prompted interest in Depop, where 90 per cent of users are under the age of 26. 

This ‘Generation Z’ age group ‘is the most exciting community within resale’, according to Etsy’s chief executive Josh Silverman, as they adopt second-hand fashion faster. 

Depop has around 30m registered users, many of them youngsters who scroll through the images and buy what they like. 

This technology has also helped to build a sense of community between its users – many follow particular sellers for fashion advice or curated style tips. 

Beckerman said: ‘This summer marks ten years since Depop was founded, and I’m delighted to see it mark this anniversary by beginning an exciting new chapter. What Depop offers – easy access to unique fashion and a vibrant creative community – is truly distinctive.’ 

Raga added: ‘Our community is made up of people who are creating a new fashion system by establishing trends and making new from old. They come for the clothes, but stay for the culture.’ 

But the takeover is a blow to British business, as the country loses ownership of another promising tech start-up. 

Etsy said Depop’s HQ will stay in London, and it will be run by its existing leadership team.