Lithuania's Vinted locks in new valuation of €5 billion in books after the conclusion of the actual closing of a secondary share sale worth €340 million ($367 million) by the second-hand fashion marketplace.

The transaction was led by private equity giant TPG. Other new participants include Baillie Gifford, FJ Labs, Hedosophia, Invus Opportunities, Manhattan Venture Partners, and Moore Strategic Ventures. It's not clear precisely how much the firm's existing investors cashed out but says that all the firm's existing institutional investors retained at least some stake in the company. Those include Accel, EQT, Insight Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

It has ended up being a bumper year for secondary market transactions, particularly in Europe, as scale-ups look at ways of unlocking liquidity for their employees and VCs during a decidedly tepid IPO market. Over the last few months alone, we have seen neobanks such as Revolut and Monzo pursue secondary market routes, bagging lofty valuations off the back of strong user growth and profitability.

Meanwhile, fintech goliath Stripe followed a similar path to unlock liquidity, reaching a private valuation of $65 billion back in February as it continues to delay a long-rumored IPO. That figure later jumped to $70 billion as Sequoia sought a larger stake from existing investors.

According to Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga pictured above, the sale "rewards our employees for their dedication in making Vinted a success." The company was valued at €3.5 billion, or $3.8 billion, in the last €250 million Series F fundraise back in 2021. Since then, it has been going from strength to strength, reporting record revenue growth of 61% in 2023 compared to the previous year after having reached profitability for the first time.

At the same time, Vinted expanded geographically and is also moving outside of its core fabric fashion roots into electronics territory - a growth path that precipitated marketplace stalwart eBay to react by doing away with seller fees in strategic European markets.