Old clothes ending up at landfills is still a large problem. According to the
EPA, 11.2 million tons of textiles were dumped into landfills in 2017. Governments are taking a more staunch approach to this practice, and now enforcing laws that forbid brands of destroying these goods. In January of this year, France
introduced a law that bans destroying designer clothes and luxury goods.
Nonetheless, the problem of certain clothes being pushed down the ladder from a physical store, to an outlet, to a landfill still exists.
“If the hot potato keeps getting handed over to somebody else and not getting sold, it will eventually end up in landfills,” Daniels says.
The Amsterdam-based enterprise has 100 employees and over one million users. It works with 200 brands, ranging from small local labels to fashion giants like Vans, Puma, and Guess.
Otrium makes money in two ways: by charging commission on successful transactions, as well as by offering full logistics service, meaning a lot of the goods that they sell are physically in Otrium’s distribution centers.
Though the company doesn’t release revenue numbers, Daniels says that even prior to the coronavirus (which has caused a spike in online sales mostly due to physical stores being closed), Otrium was growing 10% month over month.
The company’s main storage hub and what they call a mother facility is a 50,000 square meter- warehouse near the German border, from where Otrium ships the products.
Daniels says they plan to open new hubs to offer quicker shipments, next day delivery in core markets that we’re active, with Otrium recently announcing the launch of its UK site, adding to its presence in the Netherlands, France and Germany.
Milan Daniels and Max Klijnstra, who have been friends since elementary school, and who serve as cofounders and co-CEOs of Otrium, made the
30 Under 30 retail and ecommerce list in 2019.
Just a year ago, in May of 2019, Otrium raised an $8 million Series A round, and with the seed round and the latest $26 million Series B, the total equity financing amounts to $37 million.