About

New parents need to spend a significant budget to buy all necessary baby equipment. Children's needs are changing fast and this results in clothes and gear that are no longer needed to pile up in homes. Most importantly, parents are called to spend a significant amount every month to cover a child’s current needs. Momcycle aims to give them a useful tool in order for them to convert items their child no longer needs into cash. In that way, they can recover a fraction of their initial expenditure. At the same time, Momcycle offers parents the chance to buy their favourite brands of pre-owned products that are either new, in very good or good condition, at a discount of up to 80% off their initial price. Second hand shopping is a fundamental part of a circular economy as it shifts demand from first hand channels and prolongs items' useful life. The clothing industry is one of the first industries to contribute to CO2 emissions also makes very extensive use of natural resources.

Solution & Product

Momcycle is the n.1 online marketplace in Greece dedicated to parents, to buy and sell pre-owned products from eponymous brands, for babies and children up to 12 years, offering: • a wide range of quality eponymous products at lower prices • the highest security standards for transactions • a seamless shipping procedure Our USP is that we are niche: children's wear and gear is a significant expense in a parent’s life that deserve their own resale site, rather than existing as a sub-category on a multi-platform. We provide our sellers with an engaged and relevant audience and our buyers with deals that they are interested in. Each item sold on Momcycle, means that somebody did not buy a new item, which requires natural resources to be consumed when it is produced.

Innovation & Scalability

We are the 1st online resale marketplace for children's products in Greece and we innovate by launching a non-existing market so far: the regulated market for pre- owned eponymous children's products. Traditionally, not many Greek parents would buy second hand. But factors such as the economic crisis, increased environmental conscience in younger generations and the elimination of “stigma” of buying second hand due to the international rise of the resale market result in an opportunity to educate parents. What makes us different from existing solutions is that we provide a) a curated, premium environment attracting solely parents b) a safe platform for transactions to be held exclusively online c) an easy shipping procedure that includes shipment of larger gear. The business opportunity relies in a high-frequency buying pattern of parents. By building engagement and attracting high frequency buyers and sellers, we will result in healthy economics. The lifetime value of each customer can be 12 years or more, depending on how many children they have. We rolled out in Greece - a small market with about 90,000 births annually- with the intent to roll out MomCycle in other European countries by creating localised versions and partnering with local shipping partners. Our business' advantage is that we have minimum on the ground operations, which is what has so far inhibited the world's largest resellers from making profits despite very large turnover.

Traction & achievements

Upon our launch we won the Envolve Entrepreneurship award that provided us with € 40,000 of funding in the form of an interest free loan. One year post launch, we are proud to have listed on our platform 2,500 products of high value brands. Our product growth is stable, currently adding around 350 new products every month. In terms of sellers, we have enlisted more than 700 active sellers that have passed the KYC process required by our payments provider. Our average basket value is 61 and our sales have a steady montly growth of 50% (month to month). In terms of qualitative feedback, we are proud to have received very positive feedback on the buying experience from the buyers who rate their sellers online. Also, due to our team's background in communication, we have appeared in many major publications like Fortune, Mononews, Proto Thema to name a few.

Team & Why Us

Ileana Ismyridi is responsible for the product and business development. Ileana’s first degree is in Business Management, she therefore has an economics & finance background. She holds an MS in Communication from Boston University.She has 15 years of experience in consulting brands in business & communication strategy and has a strong interest in all things digital, having obtained various certifications. In 2015 she co-founded The Pop Up Project, a commercial event showcasing Greek brands. Niki Lalioti is responsible for Momcycle's marketing strategy. After obtaining her first degree in Communication in Athens, Niki completed a Master’s in Communication at NYU. She has extended experience in the field, serving as a Client Service Director of a leading PR agency in Greece for 8 years. For the past 7 years she has served as the Marketing and Communication director for the global award–winning fine jewellery brand Nikos Koulis, achieving international exposure and networking. We are two passionate entrepreneurs who happen to have experienced first -hand the problem of over- consumption in the children's segment. Our exposure to different markets and our vast experience in communication and marketing have helped so far to position and market MomCycle effectively and with minimum cost. From now on, we need the funds that will allow us to market aggressively in order to attract sellers and build our inventory, thus gaining first mover advantage in the children's resale market.

Funding Needs

We are looking to raise € 300,000- 400,000 in order to fund our operations and expansion in the next two years. A large part of the funding would be spent on marketing needed to support the marketplace. We are currently spending on digital advertising and influencers and would like to significantly increase our marketing spend in order to expand our product base quickly and drive sales. Our aim is to maintain a monthly gross merchandising revenue growth of around 28% for the next 24 months, in order to break even in the Greek market. Apart from marketing, this funding would allow us to cover our development needs that include the development of an android and iOS application as well as extra features that would make the experience more attractive. In the second year, we aim to launch a localised version of MomCycle in a second European market, by creating a translated version of the platform, partnering with a local shipping provider and hiring a local PR/ advertising agency.