Purple Dot has raised 拢1.35 million听蝉别别诲听funding.听
The London firm听bills itself as a听鈥榳orth-the-wait payment option for fashion听brands鈥�.听
Founded in August 2019 by Skyscanner employees Madeline Parra (CEO) and John Talbott (CTO), Purple Dot is helping fashion brands tackle wasted inventory, drastic sales tactics, and the profit erosion that comes with it.听
The听seed round听was听led by Connect Ventures with support from AI Seed,听Moxxie听Ventures, Andy Chung and Philipp Moehring from AngelList, Vijay Pandurangan (ex-Twitter), Alex Roetter,听former SVP of Engineering at Twitter,听and the family office of Paul Forster, co-founder of Indeed.com.听
Its听model allows consumers to request a 鈥榳orth-the-wait鈥� lower price and,听in return, retailers may then decide听whether or not听to release a product mid-season at a slightly reduced rate.听听
Customers pay up听front and then wait to have the item confirmed, receiving a full refund if not.听听
The Purple Dot payment method sits alongside 鈥榖uy now, pay later鈥� finance options, but does not look to drag consumers into unsustainable debt.听听
The company is currently working with a variety of small boutiques across the country and is in discussions with听a number of听major UK and US high street brands.听The first major brand to partner with Purple Dot will be menswear retailer SPOKE, an听integration听which is听likely to go live in November.听听
鈥�When shopping online today, customers can either pay the retail price or walk away,鈥� said CEO Parra.听听
鈥�When they do walk away, the item goes through the discounting process, becomes unprofitable for the merchant and is resigned to landfill.听听
鈥�This binary system isn鈥檛 working for anyone – the customer loses out on the item, because it may go out of stock in their size before they attempt to purchase it again, and the merchant loses the sale.听听
鈥�Purple Dot tackles this problem head on by providing a new way to shop, taking on unsustainable, unrelenting consumerism, poor pricing tactics and profit-crunching sales at the same time.鈥�听