The Interview: Co-founder Abhi Arora on building second-hand wholesale marketplace Fleek

B2B marketplace Fleek, built for vintage and second-hand wholesale clothing, began on the streets of Brick Lane and has since grown into a Silicon Valley-backed global player, carving out a distinct niche in the ever-expanding fashion resale market. Since selling its first wholesale second-hand bundle in November 2021, the London-based business has enabled over 10,000 resellers to source stock from more than 1,000 wholesalers across 70 countries. 

Along the way, it has also received backing from Silicon Valley, with its latest Series B funding round bringing its total raised capital to $50 million.

Neither of Fleek's two founders, Abhi Arora, who is CEO, and Sanket Agarwal, who is Chief Technology Officer, have a background in fashion. Instead, both are veterans of the technology and start-up scene. Far from being a disadvantage in this shared venture, they bring a fresh perspective, as well as considerable tech expertise, to the traditionally opaque and analog world of the resale clothing market. Arora's expertise in video and AI, combined with Agarwal’s decade of Silicon Valley experience at companies like Google and Uber, have clearly shaped the technology that underpins Fleek, especially its focus on social commerce.

Its value proposition is simple. Fleek is a global online marketplace that makes it possible for vintage stores and resellers to find wholesale stock with ease, trust and scale. It connects buyers (primarily resellers and retailers of vintage clothing) directly with wholesale suppliers of second-hand clothing from around the world, removing the middlemen and inefficiencies that have held this industry back.

In this interview, Arora sheds light on how Fleek has brought transparency and scalability to the world of second-hand clothing, how it integrates video-enabled live shopping and other technology into its platform, how it tackles common challenges in the business such as stock quality and authenticity, and its ambitious plans for the future.

How did you come up with the idea of Fleek? 

Sanket and I first met in San Francisco. We were both part of a founder community and quickly became close collaborators. During the COVID lockdown, I was living just off Brick Lane, the heart of London’s vintage scene, when I came across a shop forced to close during lockdown. I had already been speaking to local vintage retailers who told me their greatest struggle was sourcing reliable stock.

When Sanket mentioned that his fiancée’s mother, who sells second-hand clothing online in Florida, faced the exact same problem, we realised this wasn’t just a London issue - it was a global one. That’s how Fleek was born.

Neither you nor your co-founder have a background in fashion. Do you think that was an advantage or disadvantage for starting your business?

Coming from tech and startup backgrounds rather than fashion meant we approached the problem with fresh eyes. We weren't constrained by how things had always been done in the industry. We looked at the second-hand supply chain and saw a fundamentally broken system that was still operating almost entirely offline—and we knew technology could transform it. Our backgrounds gave us the tools and mindset to build a platform-first solution. There was no playbook for what we were doing, and nobody had done it before.

How would a resale businesses, say a vintage store, source their inventory traditionally?

Traditionally, it's been incredibly fragmented and time-consuming. Resellers would have to physically scour car boot sales, charity shops, estate sales and sometimes travel to trade shows or visit sorting centres in person. A lot of the supply chain runs on word-of-mouth relationships and local networks. For a vintage store owner, this means spending a huge amount of time just finding stock rather than actually growing their business. That's what Fleek changes - we bring this entire process online so resellers can source inventory from trusted wholesale suppliers around the world, all from one platform with full buyer protection.

How does the margin on a Fleek-sourced vintage haul compare to a typical wholesale order for a vintage store?

On Fleek, buyers are purchasing directly from wholesale suppliers, which cuts out the brokers and middlemen that traditionally add cost to the supply chain. Shipping, duties, taxes and fees are all included in the listing price, so there are no hidden costs. Buyers can also negotiate prices directly with suppliers through our chat features and hand-pick items via video-enabled live shopping, which means they're getting exactly what they want rather than buying blind. We also offer buy now, pay later credit terms of up to 45 days with no extra fees or interest, which helps with cash flow. All of this adds up to significantly better margins compared to traditional wholesale channels.

Given you and your-co-founders' start-up and tech backgrounds, I’m really interested in how you are incorporating technology into Fleek. Can you tell me more about this?

Technology is at the heart of everything we do. We've built a social commerce platform where buyers and sellers interact through chat and video-enabled live shopping - replicating the trust-building that happens offline but with the reach and efficiency of a digital marketplace. On the supply side, we're using our data to build automated sorting technology and developing computer vision to help sellers categorise clothing more accurately, which significantly increases their yields. We're also investing heavily in AI-powered solutions to help customers close deals faster and improve quality control. Our suppliers use an app-based learning management system we've built that includes grading guidelines, helping them identify authentic brands and understand what's most in demand.

Abhi Arora, co-founder of Fleek

How do you ensure the continuity of quality supply on Fleek, and how do you account for variance of quality? Is this a big challenge when it comes to scaling the business?

Quality is something we take extremely seriously and we've built multiple layers of infrastructure to address it. We provide our suppliers with an app-based learning management system that includes detailed grading guidelines - this helps them sort and categorise clothing more accurately before it's even listed. Once a transaction is made, the order goes through one of our quality check centres, where every item is inspected for quality and authenticity using our proprietary QC app. A quality report is then shared with both the buyer and seller for full transparency.

We're also building AI and computer vision technology to make sorting and grading even more precise over time. And if anything does slip through, every order comes with full buyer protection - if items aren't as described, we accept full returns and cover the return shipping costs.

I also noticed that Fleek sells luxury clothing bundles from brands including Gucci, Barbour and Burberry. How do you handle verification of these items, and what is the prevalence of items turning out to be fake?

Authenticity is an industry-wide challenge, and it's one we're investing heavily in solving. We have a multi-layered approach. Our suppliers are trained through our app-based learning management system, which includes specific guidelines for identifying authentic branded items and weeding out fakes. Every order then passes through our quality check centres where items are inspected using our proprietary QC app. We've also partnered with trusted authentication platforms to add another layer of verification, and we're continuously building our own technology solutions for authentication.

How do you mediate between buyers and sellers, in the case where quality of supply does not meet buyers expectations for example?

Fleek sits at the centre of every transaction to ensure fairness for both sides of the marketplace. Once an order is placed, it goes through our quality check centres, where items are inspected and a detailed quality report is shared with both the buyer and the seller, so there’s full transparency before the goods are even dispatched. If a buyer receives items that don’t match what was described, our buyer protection kicks in. We accept full returns, and Fleek covers the return shipping costs. Fleek is actively involved in the transaction to make sure both parties are protected and that trust is maintained.

I’m curious to understand the journey that a typical garment listed on your website, say a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, goes through. Where do these items come from, how do they end up in Pakistan and India (which I understand are your main supplier geographies), and where do they then travel to?

The vast majority of second-hand clothing donations (around 90% of all donations globally) ends up in sorting centres overseas. So that Ralph Lauren polo might start its second life when someone in the UK or US donates it to a charity shop or recycling programme. From there, it gets baled up and shipped to large textile sorting centres, many of which are based in Pakistan and India. At these sorting centres, the clothing is unpacked and sorted into categories by brand, type, condition, etc. The more granular and accurate the grading, the better the clothing sells.

This is where Fleek comes in. We work with these sorting centres and wholesale suppliers to get this inventory listed on our platform. A reseller in London, Paris or New York, for example, can then browse curated bundles or hand-pick items via video call and place an order. That order goes through one of our QC centres, where items are checked for quality and authenticity, and then it is dispatched to the buyer. From order placement to delivery, the process typically takes 21 to 28 days.

How do you reconcile the positive environmental impact of reusing a garment with the fact that it might have travelled twice around the world?

The reality is that these garments are already travelling around the world - that’s how the second-hand supply chain works today, with or without Fleek. What we’re doing is making that journey more efficient and ensuring more garments actually find a second life rather than ending up in landfill. To date, we’ve helped divert more than nine million items of clothing from landfill. The environmental cost of producing a new garment (the water, energy, chemicals and carbon emissions) far outweighs the shipping footprint of moving an existing one. That said, we’re actively working to reduce our logistics impact. We’re currently testing more sustainable shipping options, including sea freight and sea freight “carpools”, to lower both costs and emissions.

Who are your main competitors?

Fleek has no direct competitors. We’re unique in this space - there is no other B2B marketplace purpose-built for vintage and second-hand wholesale clothing. Before Fleek existed, resellers had to source through brokers, middlemen, trade shows or personal networks. We’ve removed those intermediaries and built a platform where buyers can interact directly with suppliers globally, with full transparency and buyer protection. That’s a fundamentally different proposition from anything else in the market.

Following your recent funding rounds, what are your objectives for 2026?

Our Series A investment has powered continued expansion across the UK, US and EU. In 2026, we're focused on a few key priorities: first, growing both sides of our marketplace - bringing more buyers and more suppliers onto the platform. Second, deepening our technology, particularly around AI-powered systems and product experiences that improve the sourcing journey for our users. And third, investing in our people - we're making our existing team AI-native by putting the right tools in place, while attracting exceptional new hires who operate as super ICs. We believe the future belongs to lean, high-output teams where every individual contributor is empowered by AI to have an outsized impact.

Do you see Fleek eventually becoming a sourcing partner for major retailers and brands who want to enter the resale market or will the business focus remain on catering to resale businesses?

We're actually already doing this - we've helped large high street retail chains enter the second-hand apparel market, and we plan to grow this side of the business significantly. We're also building out our upcycled clothing categories specifically with these larger partners in mind. But our core mission hasn't changed: we exist to empower entrepreneurs in the circular economy. Independent resellers and vintage retailers will always be at the heart of what we do. The way we see it, serving major retailers and serving independent resellers aren't mutually exclusive - both channels help us bring more second-hand clothing into circulation.