The archive · Commerce & Marketplaces · Strategic decision · 2008–2026
Vinted's buyer-fee C2C bet: secondhand first, €813M revenue, €5B+ private
Vinted bet sellers list free while buyers pay fees; it scaled to €813.4M revenue, €76.7M profit and a €5B valuation without an IPO.
Vinted
What the business is
Vinted runs a peer-to-peer marketplace for secondhand clothes and home goods across Europe: sellers pay nothing to list or sell, buyers pay a protection fee, and the group monetizes further through its Vinted Go shipping and Vinted Pay payments arms.
Starting capital：€250M all-equity Series F in May 2021 led by EQT Growth (Accel, Burda, Insight, Lightspeed, Sprints), €3.5B pre-money, after a $1B valuation at end of 2019; €340M secondary sale at €5B in October 2024 led by TPG.
How it started
Founded in Vilnius in 2008 after Milda Mitkutė asked programmer friend Justas Janauskas for help clearing her wardrobe before a move, Vinted grew into a cross-border C2C marketplace. It became Lithuania's first tech unicorn with a $1B valuation at the end of 2019, then raised a €250M Series F in May 2021 at €3.5B pre-money with 45M users in 13 markets.
What happened
Under CEO Thomas Plantenga, Vinted restructured around the buyer-fee model, expanded across Europe, added electronics, and built Vinted Go and Vinted Pay in-house. It reached profitability for the first time in 2023 after years of losses, with revenue up 61%, and in October 2024 closed a €340M secondary sale at a €5B valuation led by TPG, letting early employees and investors cash out while remaining private.
How it ended up
2024 results published in April 2025: consolidated revenue of €813.4M, up 36% from €596.3M in 2023, net profit of €76.7M, up 330% from €17.8M, and adjusted EBITDA of €158.9M. In November 2025 TechFundingNews reported Vinted exploring a secondary share sale at around an €8B valuation with 100M+ registered users across 22 European countries.
Background
Vinted's bet was simple and contrarian for a marketplace: make selling free and monetize the buyer. Founded in Vilnius in 2008 when Milda Mitkutė asked her programmer friend Justas Janauskas for help clearing her wardrobe before a move, the platform grew by removing friction from the supply side — sellers list clothes and home goods for nothing, buyers pay a 3–8% protection fee.
The model took more than a decade to prove. Vinted became Lithuania's first tech unicorn at a $1B valuation in late 2019, and in May 2021 raised a €250M Series F led by EQT Growth at €3.5B pre-money, with 45M users across 13 markets. Under CEO Thomas Plantenga, it restructured, kept the marketplace strictly C2C — refusing brands and reseller channels — and built its own logistics and payments arms, Vinted Go and Vinted Pay.
The patience paid off. Vinted reached profitability for the first time in 2023, then reported 2024 revenue of €813.4M, up 36%, with net profit of €76.7M and adjusted EBITDA of €158.9M. In October 2024 it closed a €340M secondary sale at a €5B valuation led by TPG, giving employees and early investors liquidity without an IPO.
By November 2025 the company was exploring a further secondary sale at around an €8B valuation, with more than 100M registered users across 22 European countries, still private and still betting that secondhand can be fashion's first choice.
What has to be true
- Vinted inverted marketplace economics: no seller fees maximized supply, while a 3–8% buyer protection fee monetized demand — and TechCrunch documented the model in 2021 as users passed 45M.
- Category discipline was strategic: staying C2C fashion and home goods, and declining brand-reseller channels, protected the peer-to-peer authenticity that kept the model defensible.
- It chose patient private scaling over a hot IPO: a €340M October 2024 secondary at €5B rewarded employees and investors, and by November 2025 an €8B secondary was being explored.
- Vertical integration of logistics (Vinted Go) and payments (Vinted Pay) captured more of each transaction and supported €158.9M adjusted EBITDA in 2024.
What can be applied
Free sellers, fee-paying buyers, narrow categories and patient secondary-market liquidity let a C2C marketplace compound for 15 years — profitability at €813M revenue came before any IPO, not after.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Vinted is Europe's largest secondhand fashion marketplace, still private and profitable. Its 2024 results showed €813.4M revenue and €76.7M net profit, and it is reportedly exploring an €8B secondary share sale, having moved from 45M users in 13 markets in 2021 to over 100M registered users in 22 countries. It continues to expand categories into electronics and luxury and is testing transatlantic shipping between London and New York.
Sources
- Vinted raises $303M for its 2nd-hand clothes marketplace, used by 45M and now valued at $4.5B
- Vinted hits $5.4B valuation amid wave of secondary share sales in Europe
- Vinted's profits soar thanks to 'scale, innovation and cost control'
- Vinted eyes €8B valuation in secondary share sale
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