A Houston-based startup wants to build a better way for so-called "sneakerheads" to trade shoes online, and the company aims to grow after an injection of new financing.
Tradeblock raised more than $8.9 million in seed funding from investors Courtside VC, Trinity Ventures and Concrete Rose Capital, the company announced Aug. 25. The company is planning a rolling close to its current seed II round and expects to bring in an additional $4.5 million from investors by close.
Tradeblock co-founders Mbiyimoh Ghogomu, Darren Smith and Tony Malveaux formed the company to build a barter-based trading platform for shoe collectors contending with rapidly increasing prices by resellers. Sneaker culture and passionate collectors have turned popular sneakers from well-know brands, like Nike and Adidas, into an emerging asset class of their own.
The Tradeblock platform launched in 2020 with 300 users and under 5,000 shoes on its platform, Tradeblock said.
Since then, the Tradeblock marketplace has facilitated trades for over 250,000 users. More than 1 million shoes have been listed in virtual closets on the Tradeblock marketplace this year, the firm said.
With the new funding, Tradeblock plans to invest in expanding its authentication and logistics efforts, as well as its data science capabilities to better enhance the platform's virtual bartering experience.
Tradeblock also wants to represent the diversity of the users on its platform within the company itself. Over 75% of the firm's senior leadership team and over 80% of Tradeblock's total workforce are people of color.
"Black and brown communities have always been the backbone of the sneaker industry and sneaker culture," said Ghogomu, who serves as Tradeblock's CEO. "Showing those folks that they can be the owners and operators of this industry as opposed to just consumers is both a point of pride and a deeply rooted responsibility for everybody at Tradeblock."
