Voly co-founder’s new antique e-commerce platform Bazaa raises $650,000 pre-seed

Thibault Henry, the co-founder of rapid grocery delivery startup Voly, has co-founded Bazaa, an innovative marketplace focusing on antique furniture and vintage home décor. Despite only being in the works for roughly six months, Bazaa has already attracted $650,000 in angel investment.

Bazaa was co-founded in late 2023 by Henry and former Depop general manager for APAC, Aria Wigneswaran – but has only been live for a handful of weeks. 

Bazaa combines online retail with antiquing

According to Henry, the e-commerce platform distinguishes itself from competitors such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace by honing in on a niche yet expansive sector: antiques and vintage goods. 

The genesis of Bazaa was motivated by a gap identified by Henry and Wigneswaran in the traditional online marketplace for vintage and antique items. This venture seeks to marry the convenience of e-commerce with the charm of antique shopping, offering a solution to the logistical hurdles that often dissuade potential buyers.

“We both loved finding unique pieces online or in antique shops and stuff like that, but always found that it was actually quite time-consuming and tricky. And you could spend kind of hours on Facebook Marketplace dealing with scammers, barriers limited to geography, etc,” Henry said on a call with SmartCompany.

We though that there’s a model to create a curated marketplace for vintage and antique homewares and start by just listing all the businesses that have unique, beautiful goods and help them with the logistics.”

Reputable sellers of antiques and vintage wares are able to list on the site, with Bazaa taking a 15% service fee. With that comes the handling of the online payment gateway and shipping for the sellers.

Every item listed on Bazaa is from a trusted and already-established seller who has been vetted by the business. Each individual item listed on the platform – currently around 5000 – is also checked by the Bazaa team. 

But this approach may not be viable forever, particularly as the platform grows.

“We’re going to start working on automation as well, but the reality is that for now we want to nail the experience and we’re more than happy to approve every single item,” Henry said.

“At some point, the trusted sellers will be able to list directly and the new ones will be reviewed.”

This is particularly pertinent in the antique space, where authentication is critical. This approach reflects Bazaa’s broader ambition to not only serve as a marketplace but also elevate the standards of online antique shopping.

And it seems that investors agree. Bazaar has already attracted $650,000 in angel investment from undisclosed “high net-worth individuals.”

While Bazaa didn’t want to tap VC funds for its pre-seed round, it is looking in that direction for seed funding. According to Henry, Bazaa is hoping to close a VC-funded seed round in 2024.

In the future Bazaa plans to expand its inventory to include new but still “slowly made” goods, tapping into the rising consumer interest in sustainable and quality craftsmanship. This initiative aligns with current trends favoring items with longevity over mass-produced alternatives, a shift that has gained momentum amid recent supply chain challenges.

“Since COVID when you want to buy a new product usually you have to wait a couple of months before getting it — sometimes even six to nine months,” Henry said.

“So we’ve seen a lot of people that were not even attracted to vintage straightaway wanting to buy on our platform just because they knew it was available now.”

Despite the initial enthusiasm and financial backing, Bazaa faces the dual challenge of educating both consumers about the virtues of vintage online shopping and sellers about the benefits of expanding their reach through the platform. Addressing these concerns is integral to Bazaa’s strategy, aiming to foster a vibrant community of antique enthusiasts and reputable sellers.

“When you think of antique stores, vintage stores, a lot of them are very happy with the way things are going at the moment and don’t necessarily see the opportunity to grow straightaway,” Henry said.

“So it’s explaining to them that if they just pivot a little bit towards having access to the entire country and being able to ship everywhere — they could double or triple the turnover.”

Learnings from rapid grocery delivery to an antique e-commerce platform

Before Bazaa, Henry was the co-founder of Voly – one of the biggest competitors to Milkrun in the rapid grocery delivery space, netting $18 million in seed funding in 2021.

Unfortunately for Voly, it shuttered in late 2022. But it wasn’t the only one, with the entire quick grocery delivery ecosystem collapsing as the world emerged from COVID lockdowns. Milkrun closed up shop in 2023, as did other competitors such as SEND and Quicko.

Henry shared what he learned from his last business venture, and how that led him down the path to Bazaa.

“I’ve learned that in Australia you need to be careful with labour costs,” Henry said.

“My experience at Voly was amazing, and it was the best team ever… but also it was a business that was burning a lot of money.”

According to Henry, Voly was a business that consumers loved but it wasn’t close enough to the unit economics.

“Also in many ways, we were solving a problem that people did not know they had. Before offering groceries in 15 minutes, nobody knew they wanted 15 minute-groceries,” Henry said.

“Whereas here I’m resolving something that I feel was a problem for me for a very long time, and for a lot of people around me.”

Henry said that in addition to closing the gap between e-commerce and vintage goods, his motivation was also to do good for the planet by operating a circular economy business.

“As soon as I started thinking about this, it became obvious that I need to launch the business that way.”