A business concept that began in the back of a vehicle has garnered a near quarter-million-dollar funding round for Albuquerque startup Rerouted, an e-commerce company focused on the resale of used outdoor gear.
On Thursday, co-founder and CEO Chap Grubb told Albuquerque Business First that Rerouted closed its seed round on Feb. 26, one day after his child was born. He said the $240,000 round came from angel investors as well as the SCAPE Investment Fund 6 in Durango, Colorado, and GOS Capital, a newborn VC from Albuquerque developer Scott Goodman.
“I promised my wife … that I’d get the money before the baby came," Grubb said. He and his wife Samantha (who runs operations and marketing) founded Rerouted in 2019, which began with used gear sales out of a vehicle. Today, things look a lot different and are about to change even more.
Currently, Rerouted's platform is operated using plug-and-play tools, but with its recently-secured cash haul, it is aiming to move its platform onto its own software. Additionally, it will put money toward advertising.
Grubb said Rerouted's website has 1,850 users with hundreds of downloads of its application, which launched six months ago. On average, about 30 pieces of gear are added per week. Rerouted currently does about $2,000 a month in sales, he said. Rerouted is also working to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning that would use photos of gear to automatically post and categorize items, as well as distribute postings.
SCAPE led the firm's recent funding round. Last year, Rerouted participated in a business program put on by SCAPE that began in March 2021. Analytical Technologies Inc. of Farmington was the only other New Mexico company in that six-company cohort, according to a report from the Durango Herald.
