Sellpy, a second-hand clothes retailer majority owned by H&M, is set to expand to more than 20 EU countries.

The start-up, founded in 2014, collects clothes from sellers’ homes, handling the process of selling and photographing the goods themselves.

The chain currently operates in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and Austria, but will now serve France, Spain, Ireland and Belgium amongst others.

Parent company H&M’s recycling and sustainability efforts have received public criticism over the past year; it was accused of “greenwashing” by anti-fast fashion campaigners in February 2021, when it announced plans to make clothes from Circulose, made from up-cycled clothing and fashion waste.

The Scandinavian fashion giant has invested $24.38 million in Sellpy and owns around 70 per cent of the company, according to chief executive Gustav Wessman in an interview with Reuters.

Sellpy is not the only second-hand clothing business that is experiencing rapid expansion; Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) clothing platform Vinted recently hit a €3.5 billion valuation following a €250 million Series F funding round.

In March, research from eBay found that 81 per cent of British customers had bought second-hand goods over the past 12 months.

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