London-based fashion rental marketplace, HURR, has received $5.4 million in seed funding, bolstering its efforts to promote a circular economy in the fashion industry.

The seed money will go toward more proprietary technology developments, expanding HURR's white-label partners, and community growth.

Octopus Ventures, a circular economy specialist and European VC firm, led the round, which has also supported other circular economy leaders such as Depop (bought by Etsy for $1.6 billion), food-sharing app OLIO, and toy subscription service Whirli, among other unidentified investors.

Victoria Prew, CEO and Founder of HURR said that he is totally confident that the future of fashion is circular, and they are proud to be at the forefront of this increasing consumer movement. Customers in the UK spend £2.7 billion on ensembles they only wear once, while more than $400 billion worth of apparel is wasted globally each year, according to another startling statistic.

He added that he is a millennial who grew up with the concept of shared ownership. They've all seen disruptive tech-first enterprises like Airbnb and Uber grow to prominence, and if they can rent their homes and cars, why not their closets? They're also excited to have Octopus Ventures, D4, and Ascension join them on their adventure. As they move towards their objective of re-inventing ownership, their combined knowledge in circular and establishing outstanding customer-focused businesses will be fantastic advantages.

HURR, which was founded in 2019, has developed a hybrid business model to support a circular economy approach through peer-to-peer fashion rentals, direct collaborations with over 85 exclusive fashion partners, and a white-label solution that supports rental for top shops like Selfridges Rental.

HURR also has a physical presence at London's Selfridges department store, and this year announced an industry-first partnership with worldwide resale platform Depop.

Matt Chandler, Consumer Investor at Octopus Ventures, said that HURR is perfectly poised to leverage on the shift towards new models of ownership and pioneer the transition to a more climate-friendly apparel business. It is able to deliver a full-stack rental solution to established brands by handling the crucial logistics services required for rental, which feeds the HURR platform with incredible breadth and depth of supply. As they join with Victoria and her team, they see a big opportunity for scale and are pleased to use their expertise working with Depop.