Rebel with a Cause: Announcing Our Series A Funding

A letter from our founder

In 2019, the thought of leaving my corporate job at one of the largest off-price retailers in the world to start a company focused on tackling the growing problem of retail returns could not have been further from my mind. But fast-forward five years, and that's exactly what happened. Rebelstork was born out of necessity.

I was busy preparing for the birth of my first child, and I became frustrated that I had limited options for buying high-quality but discounted baby gear. Having spent my entire career focused on off-price retailing, I started doing some research.

I uncovered that retailers and brands lacked a viable option to resell their open box baby gear returns (unused products primed for a discount!) due to rigorous safety regulations. Worse yet, I discovered that the majority of retailers and brands had no alternative but to discard open box returns in landfills.

My team and I set out to create a technology-based solution. Where we landed was Rebelstork, a female-founded and certified B-Corporation created to meet the needs of the value-seeking consumer while simultaneously solving the pressing issue of retail returns. Today, I’m proud to say that after four years, Rebelstork is North America's largest liquidation and returns re-commerce marketplace for baby gear.

Taking a step back, the retail returns crisis has reached an alarming peak, causing significant financial strain for retailers across various industries. The losses incurred due to returns amount to billions of dollars annually, with the baby gear sector alone accounting for $16 billion. Our vision was to build the technology to process mass volumes of retailer and brand overstock and open box returns, coupled with a marketplace where consumers could shop at a discount. This would produce a win-win situation where retailers could divert millions of pounds from landfills annually while generating a new revenue stream. And parents could shop for quality checked open box baby gear from the best brands at the best prices.

While the idea sounds simple, the execution is quite complex. Our team spent years building the technology required to address the challenge of “reverse logistics,” which refers to the complex processes involved in managing returned and overstocked inventory. Alongside that, we developed a unique deal batch technology system that assigns a unique identifier to each product we sell to give the brands and retailers we work with complete transparency throughout the entire workflow.

Today, I’m proud to say that we are growing our revenues at over 300% annually, proving that parents care about getting great value and being environmentally conscious. Plus, we are diverting over 12 million pounds of waste from landfills annually.

We’re excited to announce our $18 million Series A funding, led by Maveron and with participation from Serena Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, and Golden Ventures, an existing investor. This funding will help us expand and further develop our proprietary returns re-commerce technology used by brands and retailers.

To date, we’ve partnered with over 2,500 brands across 45 categories, including Million Dollar Baby, BabyBjörn, and 4moms, as well as mass retailers like Target, who have seen first-hand our platform’s ability to create new revenue streams and mitigate return costs. And it’s not just businesses that are benefiting — consumers are, too. More and more expecting and new parents are opening up to the idea of buying open box goods at a discount. They feel confident because every item we resell is quality-checked through our rigorous “Rebby Pinky Promise” process.

Every parent deserves the opportunity to buy quality products for their kids without breaking the bank or needlessly contributing to landfills. Just like every retailer deserves a realistic option for handling the returns challenges they’re experiencing. Rebelstork delivers on both those promises. We’ll take this opportunity and vote of confidence to launch new products, expand operations, and grow our team. Together, we’ll make Parenting Lighter™ — and a lot more sustainable. Let’s go!