The RealReal ropes in $50 million in new funding

The Real­Re­al, a six-year-old, San Fran­cis­co-based com­pa­ny focused on authen­ti­cat­ed, high-end resale items for women, men, and the home, has land­ed $50 mil­lion in growth fund­ing from the pri­vate equi­ty firm Great Hill Partners.

The round, which brings the company’s total fund­ing to $173 mil­lion, did not include pre­vi­ous back­ers; a spokes­woman for the com­pa­ny says Great Hill “want­ed all of the investment.”

The cash infu­sion comes at an impor­tant junc­ture for The Real­Re­al, which now employs more than 800 peo­ple and has pushed out the time by which it will turn prof­itable, set­ting its sights instead on spread­ing brand aware­ness by expand­ing its phys­i­cal footprint.

Already, the com­pa­ny has opened six val­u­a­tion offices in the last 18 months, includ­ing in San Fran­cis­co, New York, L.A., Chica­go, and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. The spaces enable con­signors to con­sult direct­ly with val­u­a­tion experts about their fine jew­el­ry and watches.

Last month, in a sit-down with this edi­tor in San Fran­cis­co, CEO Julie Wain­wright said that The Real­Re­al is also weigh­ing a strat­e­gy of open­ing a series of brick-and-mor­tar stores, start­ing first with one New York loca­tion that a Real­Re­al spokes­woman says is still being locked down and should be open for busi­ness in late fall or ear­ly win­ter this year.

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