DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Mavely raises USD$1m to help lessen social spend; Lunar Way secures funding and European banking license; and ThredUp raises USD$100m. 

Mavely raises USD$1m to help lessen social spend

Mavely, a startup that aims to help brands spend less money on Facebook and Instagram ads, has raised USD$1m (£820k) in funding from PivotNorth Capital, a Silicon Valley VC firm that’s invested in companies such as Looker, Chime and Sun Basket.

Mavely is a shopping app that allows users to find new direct-to-consumer brands and earn an affiliate commission off each purchase. Mavely shoppers can also invite friends to shop on the platform, which also earns them cash back.

Mavely, which just launched in beta mode in April, has more than 100 direct-to-consumer brands on its platform, including Allbirds, BarkBox, Home Chef, Blue Apron and Sun Basket. 

The incentive for consumers is simple—earn money on purchases you make, and encourage your friends to shop to make even more. For brands, it’s a way to acquire customers at a much lower price point than spending on Facebook and Instagram.

Mavely expects to reach 30,000 users and 300 brands on the platform by the end of 2019.

Lunar Way secures funding and European banking license 

Denmark-based Nordic banking app, Lunar Way, has secured €26m (£24m) in a new funding round led by SEED Capital, whilst acquiring a European banking license from Danish Financial Supervisory Authority along the way.

This sets the fintech in good stead to accelerate development of its new Nordic bank and increase its growth in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian markets.

With its fresh new licence, Lunar Way is now the newest bank of the Nordics, emerging as the latest challenger in the banking industry.

“We have grown from a small start-up to a fintech with close to 100 employees from Denmark, Sweden and Norway with users in all of Scandinavia – a market notoriously hard to penetrate,” Lunar Way founder and CEO, Ken Villum Klausen.

Currently 27 million people make up the Nordic market and it’s home to some of the most stable economies in the world, which is why Lunar Way has chosen to focus its efforts solely on the Nordic markets since day one.

Rather than expand vertically, Lunar Way wants to be “a 100% digital, innovative and true alternative to traditional banks,” explains Klausen explains.

ThredUp raises USD$100m

ThredUp, the fashion resale marketplace, has raised USD$100m (£82m) in fresh funding. from an investor syndicate that includes Park West Asset Management, Irving Investors and earlier backers Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Upfront Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

The round brings ThredUP’s total capital raised to more than USD$300m (£247m), including a previously undisclosed USD$75m (£62m) investment that it secured last year.

This news comes only a few days after ThredUp announced new partnerships with Macy’s and JCPenney, whereby ThredUp will send the retailers clothing to sell through their stores. 

ThredUp feels a lot that traditional retailers are coming to see gently used items as a potential revenue stream for themselves, and little wonder given the size of the resale market, estimated to be a USD$24bn market currently and projected to become a USD$51bn (£42m) market by 2023.

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