Antler Investor Memo Series: Shopfront is the one-click solution for multi-marketplace re-selling

Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed a new cohort of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies.

Startup Daily is sharing the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people involved, with many seeking follow up capital following Antler’s initial pre-seed investment.

Company: Shopfront

Founded: February 2024
Stage: Pre-seed
Founders: Nathan Spiteri (CEO) and Drew Flaherty (CTO)
Current investors: Antler
Currently raising: Yes

The Business

The market for secondhand and alternative goods is on the rise, with platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Depop expanding access to selling opportunities. This space, including “re-commerce”, is already a multi-billion dollar industry, with the re-commerce market alone valued at over $200 billion. Sellers spend about 2% of their Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) on software, highlighting a substantial market for tools that assist in selling.

Shopfront, founded by Nathan Spiteri (CEO) and Drew Flaherty (CTO), is capitalising on this opportunity, aiming to simplify and streamline the selling process for individuals, small businesses, and enterprises.

The platform offers a comprehensive solution that handles everything from creating listings to distributing them across multiple marketplaces. By providing a one-stop shop for managing product listings and inventory, Shopfront helps sellers accelerate their sales cycles and increases the efficiency of the circular economy.

Nathan’s commercial acumen is backed by his proven track record of scaling businesses, strategic advice, and driving growth in various sectors, including e-commerce, banking, and fintech startups such as Plend. On the technical front, Drew brings extensive experience in software engineering and project management. During his time holding pivotal roles at companies like PowerPlay.xyz, Labrys, and Domino’s, he has built a solid foundation in developing scalable solutions and expertise in React Native, Firebase, and solution architecture.

Positioned uniquely within the APAC region, where competition is limited and green, Shopfront leverages a holistic approach to address multiple pain points for sellers of all sizes. The platform stores all product data in one place, offering a one-click and end-to-end solution for reselling, eliminating the need for users to manage multiple platforms and ensuring they have all the necessary tools to get discovered and generate sales.

Antler investment thesis

Antler in Australia Partner Mike Abbott notes, “Shopfront’s end-to-end approach to simplifying listing creation and inventory management across multiple marketplaces presents a robust value proposition, particularly in a market that is fragmented, locally underdeveloped, and ripe for disruption.”

“Shopfront’s potential to streamline the selling process, enhance seller visibility, and facilitate multi-marketplace distribution makes it a strong contender in the growing re-commerce sector.”

Traction/milestones

The founders met for the first time in February 2024 when Nathan approached Antler with his vision for a circular fashion marketplace. After receiving advice from the Antler team, Nathan and Drew teamed up and pivoted to develop a comprehensive platform for the re-commerce market.

Since then, Nathan has been actively engaging with marketplaces to validate Shopfront’s concept. His discussions revealed a significant demand for a tool that addresses the friction in the selling process. This validation spurred Shopfront to focus on the APAC region and transition to the current re-commerce model.

Shopfront has made notable strides. The startup has developed a minimum viable product (MVP) that has been tested by approximately 50 users. This MVP includes a product readiness tool that simplifies background removal, listing details generation, and pricing estimates.

Looking ahead, Shopfront aims to build momentum by securing 500 sign-ups for its waitlist and plans to roll out the beta platform to an initial 20 users by September. This rollout will allow users to test the platform’s capability to list products across multiple marketplaces, including eBay, Depop, and Etsy. Currently, the platform is web-based, with plans to develop a native mobile app in the future.

Latest funding

Pre-Seed from Antler

Use of Funds

The investment from Antler will expedite the development of Shopfront’s inventory management and listing tools, enabling faster onboarding of sellers and scaling of the product. Additionally, the funds will support strategic marketing initiatives aimed at attracting more users and sellers.

The founders say

“The support from Antler has been fantastic, providing us with the coaching and broader network to hit the ground running,” says Nathan. “This partnership has allowed us to plan our use of funds more strategically and prepare for our next fundraising round later this year.”

“As we scale, we intend to be the sole platform that comes to mind for individuals, who want to sell goods online by making the listing process simple, existing sellers, who want to take their business to the next level, or retailers and other enterprise sellers, that want to transition to e-commerce and distribute their unique, unsold, or faulty goods. We have a vision to become the re-commerce leader for goods being sold across multiple marketplaces.”

What’s next?

Antler, a global early-stage VC, is revealing its latest investments in ambitious Australian founders and startups. With over 100 investments in early-stage companies, Shopfront is one of its most recent portfolio companies.