Finnish startup takes on Vinted with AI-based listings

Selling your used clothes and fashion items via an app is hardly a new idea – Vinted, for example, has been doing it since 2008 and is now valued at €5b.

Still, market analyst BoF Insights estimates that only about 5-7 percent of all re-sellable fashion items ever make it onto secondhand platforms – leaving close to €2 trillion worth of items lying about in people’s homes around the world.

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Finland-based Bought’s approach to tackling the issue is by combining AI with a user’s email history to make it easier to sell items. Bought’s solution can scan users' email inboxes for past purchases and automatically generate secondhand listings - eliminating the traditional hassles of selling used items.

"Bought evolved from the realisation that everything we buy online leaves a digital trace in our emails — containing all the necessary details for creating a sales listing," says Erik Kymäläinen, CEO and co-founder of Bought. "Traditionally, creating a sales listing is a hassle. You have to dig out the item from your closet, arrange it neatly, photograph it, write a description, check the labels, recall its age, and set a price. Bought's technology does all of this for you. You can list your entire purchase history without getting off your couch.”

Heavyweight investors

Bought on Wednesday announced it has raised $1.5m in what it called the largest pre-seed round ever in Finland for a startup founded by a team under the age of 30.

Lifeline Ventures, which previously backed successful Finnish startups like Wolt, Swappie, and Oura, led the funding round with support from several heavyweight angel investors, including Wolt COO Marianne Vikkula, Swappie founder Sami Marttinen, and Bolt early investor Mikko Silventola.

Kymäläinen, who previously led Wave Ventures, founded Bought alongside second-time entrepreneurs Olli Warro and Anna Müller. The idea stemmed from personal frustration with existing platforms.

And even if you have an item you didn't buy online, the Bought app can create a listing based only on a photograph.

"Our slogan is 'Secondhand Automated,' meaning even manual listing is automated with Bought," Kymäläinen adds.