Jakarta, Indonesia
Preloved: a two-person startup with 600,000 users and no investors
Preloved, a marketplace for secondhand fashion, has passed 600,000 users since it launched on the App Store and Google Play in May 2024. The company is run by its two founders and has never taken outside money.
Sellers list clothes, shoes and bags from their own wardrobes. Buyers pay through an escrow account, known in Indonesia as rekber: the money is held until the order arrives. Shipping to anywhere in the country is booked inside the app. More than a million items have been listed so far, and about 1,000 people sign up every day. Much of that growth comes from word of mouth.
Frizky Kramer, a full-stack developer, writes the code. Farah Maulida Firdaus, a UI/UX designer who also runs marketing, designs the app and looks after the community.
The people buying and selling range from stylists, content creators and vintage collectors to shoppers who just want something nobody else is wearing. A number of Indonesian influencers and public figures also sell pieces from their own closets on the app.
Secondhand used to be what you bought when you couldn't afford new. Preloved wants buying used to feel as normal as buying new. Each sale also keeps one more piece of clothing in use.
