StockX calls itself “the stock market for things,” meaning it has a live bid/ask marketplace where buyers place bids, sellers place asks, and the transactions happen automatically when the bid and the asks meet. Recently, StockX is a Detroit-based e-commerce company that recently raised $44 million in funding.
Back in February 2017, StockX raised $6 million in its last round of funding. Investors in that round included Eminem (rapper), Wale (rapper), actor Mark Wahlberg, Scooter Braun, Detroit Venture Partners, Courtside Ventures, and SV Angel.
According to Crain’s, this investment round was announced at the Detroit Homecoming event at Little Caesars Arena by StockX CEO and co-founder Josh Luber along with Dan Gilbert, who is also a co-founder of StockX and is the billionaire co-founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This round of funding was co-led by GV (previously known as Google Ventures) and Battery Ventures. Gilbert said that this was the “first and the largest venture capital investment Silicon Valley” made in a Detroit company.
Other investors who participated in this round include Salesforce founder, chairman, and co-CEO Marc Benioff; Karlie Kloss (investor, entrepreneur, and model); DJ Steve Aoki; Shana Fisher (Third Kind Venture Capital); Jonathon Triest (Ludlow Ventures); Bob Mylod (Annox Capital); and Gilbert.
With this round of funding, StockX plans to expand into international markets and focus on original retail sales of merchandise. StockX now has 400 employees, which is up from 150 as of this past winter. And they are planning to hire 300 more employees in customer service, IT, and authentication centers in Detroit and Arizona by the end of the year. About 8,000 sneakers are being authenticated per day as of late June.
Another big announcement that StockX made at the event was that it is hitting $2 million in daily sales. Some of the products that consumers buy at StockX include secondary market sneakers, handbags, and watches. StockX is especially popular for rare sneakers that have been sold out in stores. And the company is rapidly approaching a “billion-dollar run rate.”
StockX collects an 8%-9.5% commission on the item that is sold along with a 3% processing fee.
