Estita Cabra had always wanted to work for Airbnb, and when she came up with the idea for her fashion-sharing platform company, Buy Rotation, a few years ago, she looked to other gig economy businesses like Airbnb for inspiration.
She launched Buy Rotation in 2019, turning her side hustle into a full-fledged fashion clothing rental business. It now claims to have more than 500,000 users, including celebrities like Herem Mirren, Ellie Goulding, and Amelia Windsor, a member of the British royal family. The company has raised $3.5 million in funding from backers including Bessemer Ventures and Cornerstone VC, but Kabra has been cautious about its capital table. She and her team own more than 70% of the business's equity.
So it's perhaps not surprising that By Rotation has partnered with Airbnb to offer free outfit rentals from By Rotation to anyone who books an Airbnb. The partnership is targeted primarily at people traveling for destination weddings: For a limited time, By Rotation will rent wedding-friendly outfits to people traveling to select locations.
“I was certainly in disbelief when we signed the partnership agreement,” Kabra said.
People in the US and UK are increasingly stressed about the costs of attending these weddings, but many seem hesitant to tell their friends. The phenomenon is so widespread that New York Magazine's The Cut has written a series of articles about the anxiety, confusion, and sometimes joy that comes with being a wedding guest. Currently, By Rotation's partnership with Airbnb is only available to UK customers, but the company hopes to expand to US customers soon.
The partnership will run from August to December, with Airbnb creating a rotating list of suitable rental properties in the top 10 wedding destinations around the world, including Italy, North America and Greece.
Users can visit Airbnb's Wedding Wardrobe site to claim a By Rotation voucher and rent for free. “By Rotation's vision is to go global,” says Kabra, “so this is just one step in building brand awareness and presence outside of the UK and US.”
According to Kabra, Airbnb actually approached her about a possible partnership, pitching a concept with summer vacations in mind, after which the two hit the ground running with destination weddings and began working to make it a reality.
By Rotation has grown significantly since TechCrunch last interviewed Kabra in 2022. The company has launched partnerships with Bumble and Net-a-Porter in the U.S. market and expanded its products beyond clothing to suitcases, furniture and more. She says the company has spent very little money on customer acquisition so far this year, yet revenue has increased by 250%. The app has been downloaded more than 1 million times, with 150,000 designer properties listed worth $60 million, and some customers have made $140,000 renting on the platform.
The app also allows you to rent by location, making last-minute rentals a breeze, and of course, it also has an AI-powered search feature to help you find a property faster.
“Our community-driven platform is growing in a completely organic and scalable manner ahead of the expansion into new marketplaces,” said Kabra. “In the tough fundraising marketplace we've experienced, my team and I have been able to control our own destiny by growing our community-driven marketplace and meticulously executing and operating it while constantly innovating.”
Airbnb is just the latest sign of her company's success amid consumers' desire to support a cleaner environment. In fact, the partnership is a “first of its kind” in the sharing economy, Kabra says. Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world, with up to 85% of textiles in the U.S. ending up in landfills, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. There's a growing movement within the fashion and tech industries to address these issues by giving consumers more sustainable ways to shop. One way is through renting and sharing clothing.
The sharing economy, sometimes called the circular economy to refer to consumable goods that tend to become waste, has huge potential: It's worth more than $380 billion, according to Allied Market Research, so Kara sees these partnerships as a way to encourage consumers to try new ways of shopping. “Circularity is the way forward,” Kabra said.