Vinted

Overview

Vinted is Europe’s largest online marketplace dedicated to secondhand fashion, operating a peer-to-peer (C2C) model where individuals buy and sell pre-owned clothes, shoes and accessories. Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2008 by Milda Mitkutė and Justas Janauskas, Vinted Group is now a broad ecosystem spanning the Vinted Marketplace, Vinted Go (logistics/shipping), Vinted Pay (in-app payments) and Vinted Ventures. In 2019 it became Lithuania’s first unicorn, and by 2025 the marketplace processed €10.8bn in gross merchandise value across 25+ markets, with its largest and most thriving market being France.

What they’re known for

Vinted’s defining signature is its buyer-pays-fees model: sellers list and sell for free and keep 100% of the sale price, while buyers pay a mandatory “Buyer Protection” fee (a small flat charge plus roughly 5% of the item price). By removing all friction and cost from the selling side, Vinted solved the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg supply problem — abundant free listings attract buyers, and monetisation happens on the buyer side. This zero-seller-fee approach, introduced in 2016, is widely credited as the growth engine that made it the go-to European secondhand fashion platform.

History

• 2008 — Founded in Vilnius, Lithuania by Milda Mitkutė and Justas Janauskas, originally focused on women’s fashion; the name derives from a Lithuanian phrase meaning “my clothes.”
• 2009 — Expands to Germany under the brand Kleiderkreisel, which becomes an early stronghold.
• 2012 — Shifts from a web forum to a mobile-first app, driving a ~400% jump in engagement.
• 2013 — Launches in France, which soon becomes (and remains) its largest market; first institutional funding rounds begin.
• 2016 — Restructures its fee model: eliminates seller charges and introduces the Buyer Protection fee.
• 2019 — Becomes the first Lithuanian company to reach unicorn status.
• 2021 — Launches Vinted Go (shipping/logistics with pickup and drop-off points); raises Series F at a €3.5bn valuation.
• 2023 — Reaches profitability for the first time; adds Romania, Denmark and Finland; launches Item Verification; acquires Dutch logistics firm Homerr.
• 2024 — Secondary share sale led by TPG values the company at €5bn; revenue reaches €813.4m with net profit of €76.7m.
• 2025 — GMV grows 47% to €10.8bn; revenue €1.1bn; net profit €62m.
• 2026 — €880m secondary share transaction led by EQT values the company at €8bn.

Business model

Vinted is a third-party (3P) C2C marketplace — it never takes ownership of inventory; individual sellers transact with individual buyers. Its revenue comes primarily from:

• Buyer Protection fees — the main revenue source; buyers pay a fixed fee (around €/$0.70) plus ~5% of the item price, covering payment processing, fraud protection and support. Sellers pay nothing and keep 100% of the sale price.
• Shipping margins — Vinted negotiates bulk carrier rates (USPS, Royal Mail, DPD, Hermes, etc.) and retains a markup on labels sold; Vinted Go extends this into owned logistics.
• Promoted/optional seller features — paid visibility tools such as “Bump” and wardrobe spotlight.
• Vinted Pay — in-app payments/wallet infrastructure and adjacent monetisation.

The strategic logic is a “buyer-pays” flywheel: free, frictionless selling maximises supply, which pulls in buyers, which in turn creates the transaction volume that can be monetised on the buyer side.

Why it succeeded

Vinted’s success rests on a few reinforcing decisions well documented across its financial disclosures and press coverage. First, the 2016 move to zero seller fees plus a Buyer Protection fee removed the biggest barrier to listing, letting supply scale explosively — the hard side of any marketplace. Second, an early mobile-first pivot (2012) and grassroots, low-marketing organic growth in Germany, France and the Czech Republic built dense local liquidity market by market rather than thinly across geographies. Third, it built out the full transaction stack — Buyer Protection for trust, integrated shipping/Vinted Go for convenience, and Vinted Pay for payments — turning a listings site into an end-to-end resale experience. Finally, disciplined execution converted scale into sustained profitability: profitable for the first time in 2023, then €76.7m net profit in 2024 and €62m in 2025 on €10.8bn GMV, which underpinned successive secondary valuations of €5bn (2024) and €8bn (2026). Riding a structural tailwind — the mainstreaming of secondhand and circular-economy consumption — Vinted became the default European resale destination.

Notable facts

• Marketplace GMV of €10.8bn in 2025, up 47% year-over-year from €7.3bn in 2024.
• Group revenue of €1.1bn in 2025 (up 38%), with €62m net profit; 2024 revenue was €813.4m with €76.7m net profit.
• First Lithuanian unicorn (2019); valued at €5bn (2024) and €8bn (2026) via secondary share sales.
• Operates across 25+ markets with 2,200+ employees; France is its largest market.
• Sellers keep 100% of the sale price — Vinted charges them no commission or listing fees.
• Investor base includes TPG, EQT, Accel, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, Baillie Gifford, BlackRock funds and Schroders Capital.

Links

Title	URL	Type	Note
Vinted — Sell and buy clothes, shoes and accessories	https://www.vinted.com	official-site	Official marketplace homepage
About Vinted — Our history and working culture	https://careers.vinted.com/about-vinted	official-site	Company-authored history and milestones
15 years of Vinted, Empowering Second-Hand at Scale	https://company.vinted.com/newsroom/15-years-of-Vinted	official-site	Milestone timeline incl. 2016 fee change
Vinted grew GMV by 47% YoY to €10.8bn (2025 results)	https://company.vinted.com/newsroom/financial-results-2025	report	Official 2025 financial results
Vinted Secures TPG-Led Secondary Investment at €5B Valuation	https://company.vinted.com/newsroom/secondary-investment	news	Official 2024 €5bn valuation announcement
Vinted completes secondary share transaction at €8B valuation	https://company.vinted.com/newsroom/secondary-share-transaction-at-%E2%82%AC8B%20equity%20valuation	news	Official 2026 €8bn valuation announcement
Buyer Protection fee on Vinted	https://www.vinted.com/help/342-buyer-protection-fee-on-vinted	official-site	Explains the buyer-pays fee
Vinted — Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinted	article	Founding, structure, business overview
The story behind secondhand marketplace Vinted (Tech.eu)	https://tech.eu/2015/01/15/vinted-profile/	article	Early history and founding story
Vinted hits $5.4B valuation amid secondary share sales (TechCrunch)	https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/24/vinted-hits-5-4b-valuation-amid-wave-of-secondary-share-sales-in-europe/	news	2024 €5bn / $5.4bn valuation coverage
Vinted hits €8bn valuation following big secondaries sale (Sifted)	https://sifted.eu/articles/vinted-secondaries-sale-valuation	news	2026 €8bn secondary sale coverage
Vinted reports 47% growth in GMV (Ecommerce News EU)	https://ecommercenews.eu/vinted-reports-47-growth-in-gmv/	news	Independent 2025 results coverage
How does Vinted make money? (Sharetribe)	https://www.sharetribe.com/how-to-build/how-does-vinted-make-money/	article	Revenue-model breakdown