Italist
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| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, United States |
| Key people | Diego Abba, co-founder and CEO | Raffaele Giovine, co-founder and chairman |
| Industry | E-commerce |
| Products | Clothes, shoes, accessories, jewellery, designer, luxury, glasses |
| Employees | 30 |
| Website | www |
Italist is an online retail platform that sell luxury products from over 1,000 Italian brands. The company was founded in 2014 by two Italian entrepreneurs living in the United States. The company established direct partnership with hundreds of high fashion boutiques and designers: Italist distributes fashion products in over 85 countries around the globe.
Currently Italist’s headquarters are in in Los Angeles.
History[edit]
The company was founded in Mountain View by Diego Abba and Raffaele Giovine. The original idea was “to mimic the experience of actually walking the streets of Milan and stepping into various boutiques, learning about the brands and feeling the excellent materials”.[1].
In 2014 Italist raised US$ 500.000 in funding into an angel round, leaded by 500 Startups (which also incubated the startup[2]) and with Leonardo Etro and Ennio Doris also investing.
In 2014 Italist secured a first seed round for US$ 25.000, whit Zillionize Angel investing in the company[3].
In 2015 a second seed round was secured adding US$ 500.000, taking total funding raised in three rounds to US$ 1.1 million[4]
The first version of the platform, launched in beta in 2015, was offering products from 20 brands and 70 boutiques. By 2016 boutiques have grown to 120[5], Italist started shipping to Singapore[6] and break-even was reached[7].
Management[edit]
Italist is led by Diego Abba, CEO and co-founder.
Current operations[edit]
Italist entrepreneurial vision focused one peculiar aspect of the Italian market: the lack of central international distributors allowed to establish direct partnerships with emerging and established designers, boutiques and brands, leaving room for significant savings.
Italist can offer today a final consumer price often 30% less than competitors forced to pay the complexity of international distribution[5]. Thanks to its business model, Italist can also offer a wider choice. Italist take care of the whole process of scouting, buying, marketing, discounts, payments and delivery: this way, even Italian new designers and small boutiques can afford an international e-commerce[8]. Italist holds no inventory, leveraging partner’s stock.
On Italist, customers can find luxury goods from famous brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Ferragamo, Valentino, Prada, but they can also explore and discover shoes, clothes and accessories from new Italian stylists and designers[9]. Current catalog offers more than 200.000 items of more than 1.000 brands.
Awards[edit]
Italist have received a number of industry awards:
- Winner: Best European Startup – U-start Conference 2014[10]
- Winner: Italian Excellence in West Coast - Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West[11]
References[edit]
- ↑ "500 Startups-Backed Italist Is Like Shopping The Streets Of Italy, But Online". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "500 Startups Announces Batch 11 in Mountain View". 500 Startups. 2014-11-05. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ benli (2015-02-15). "Zillionize Invests In Italist – Online Store Of Premium Italian Garments, Shoes And Accessories". Zillionize - Fueling Your Fast Growth. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "Italist Inc". Crunchbase.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Plante, Stephie Grob (2016-05-03). "This Site Offers Luxury Goods at Impressive Prices, But Is it For Real?". Racked. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ Ng, Hayden (2016-06-01). "5 Minutes With... Raffaele Giovine, Italist's Co-founder and Chairman". Singapore Tatler. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "Invest in Italist | The first online marketplace for Italian fashion". Italist on Wefunder. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "Due italiani creano negli Usa un ecommerce delle nostre migliori boutique (incubati da 500 Startup)". Startupitalia (in italiano). 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "Italist: una nuova e-boutique di tendenza". www.ilmessaggero.it (in italiano). Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ "Italist vince il premio U-Start come migliore startup d'Europa - MilanoFinanza.it". www.milanofinanza.it (in italiano). Retrieved 2019-03-06.
- ↑ Jan 03, silvia nittoli |; 2018 (2018-01-03). "Sport, fashion, tech: Italy awards its excellences in the USA". italoamericano.org. Retrieved 2019-03-06.
Italist Inc.[edit]
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