Southeast Michigan is now home to another unicorn startup.
Detroit-based e-commerce company StockX announced Wednesday that it has raised $110 million in a Series C funding round, increasing the company’s total value to more than $1 billion. The investment was led by DST Global, General Atlantic, and GGV Capital.
In a statement announcing the funding news, StockX also said that Scott Cutler will replace co-founder Josh Luber as CEO. Cutler most recently served as a senior vice president at eBay (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EBAY]]). Luber will continue to serve on the StockX board of directors and executive leadership team, according to a press release. GGV’s Hans Tung is also joining the StockX board.
“I have known the company and the management team since the beginning and have been impressed by its unique market model in e-commerce and dramatic growth,” Cutler said in a statement. “That is why the company is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the world with a rapidly expanding global user base comprised of passionate enthusiasts; it is what sets StockX apart and why I welcome the opportunity to lead the team as we look to what’s next.”
StockX calls itself an online “stock market of things.” Stock markets connect buyers and sellers; on the New York Stock Exchange, for example, people connect to buy and sell shares in publicly traded companies. Part of what makes StockX different from competing marketplaces, like eBay, is the NYSE-level trade analytics it offers, StockX says. (At inception, the company traded a variety of items but has since narrowed its focus to shoes, streetwear, handbags, collectibles, and watches.)
StockX got its start in 2012 when Luber, then working at IBM, began collecting data on aftermarket sales of sneakers. A passionate sneakerhead himself, Luber saw how lucrative the market could be. The company, formerly called Campless, was based in Philadelphia before relocating to Detroit in 2015 at the behest of investor and co-founder Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans. Gilbert reportedly became aware of Campless through his son, another sneaker devotee.
In 2018, StockX closed a $44 million funding round co-led by GV, Google’s venture capital arm, and Battery Ventures. At that time, StockX said it was planning to hire 1,000 employees. In Wednesday’s press release, the company put its current head count at roughly 800 full- and part-time employees.
StockX said it will use its new investment capital to further expand in Europe and Asia, diversity the product categories it trades in, and extend its offline reach with brick-and-mortar stores “in key international markets.”
