In April, we announced that French startup fund, ISAI, officially launched with some 24 million euros. The “French entrepreneurs fund” brings together some of the 60 hottest names in French tech, including PriceMinister‘s founder Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet and the former Editor of TechCrunch France, Ouriel Ohayon. The fund announced a first investment in June, putting 1.25 million euros into the France-based, European carpooling platform, Covoiturage.fr – and has just announced a second investment in InstantLuxe, a marketplace for certified authentic luxury goods.
InstantLuxe was founded in 2009 and allows individuals and professionals to buy and sell high-end, second-hand goods from brands like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Bulgari, etc. All items sold on the site are delivered with a certificate of authenticity after being inspected by a network of experts. The site sells everything from jewelry to leather goods to accessories – plus, users searching for a particular item can request it for free. If all this sounds familiar, it’s probably because the model isn’t dissimilar to that of Vestiaire de Copines, another French luxury marketplace that happened to raise 1.5 million euros with Ventech in June.
ISAI’s latest investment in InstantLuxe doesn’t hit the one million mark as with Covoiturage; the amount invested is 650 K€. However, it should be sufficient to get the company’s development underway as it seems InstantLuxe already has its eye on expanding into additional European markets.
Could this be the next model to follow in the footsteps of Vente-privée and Accel’s latest investment, Showroomprivé ?