Luxury shoe store Scarosso raises €8.5mn in funding

The Berlin-based company Scarosso has pulled a €8.5 million investment in Series B financing, led by NEO Investment Partners, DN Capital and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft. The company that makes and sells handcrafter Italian shoes via its website has had a successful year and that attracted new investors who believe in its vertically integrated business model.

TechCrunch compares Scarosso with Warby Parker, the online retailer and manufacturer of tailor-made glasses. That company grew big in a short time, partly because of its vertical business model. “Vertically integration – where a company both makes and sells something – has become a hot property and it’s supercharged by the efficiencies brought about via technology platforms”, the American tech site writes.

The website thinks Scarosso has attracted significant investment because of this model. Of course, it may also be because of the growth of over 300% in 2013 alone. And it’s not only the numbers that have made Scarosso interesting for investors, the brand has also got Robert Polet, former CEO of Gucci Group, and international model Johannes Huebl to join the team as advisors.

“We are vertically integrated and selling our products directly to our consumers via our e-commerce platform and our 6 retail stores (in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg & Vienna)”, says Marco Reiter, who founded the company in 2010 together with Moritz Offeney. “By cutting out the wholesale people and distributing the products directly to our consumers we can cut out the wholesale margin and deliver luxury products on half the price, compared to our competitors. Our manufacturers are producing for the worlds biggest luxury brands and are all based in Italy” he says.