Northern Ireland e-commerce firm Responsible raises £5m investment

Responsible, a Belfast-based e-commerce business that helps brands and their customers resell clothes, has raised almost £5m in new investment.

The firm will use the money to grow its business in Europe and extend its network of brand partnerships.

The firm's technology tells shoppers the residual value of an item to buy.

The shopper is free to wear the garment and return the product at any point in the future in exchange for credit at the buy back price stated at purchase.

"The fashion industry manufactures billions of items every year and only 5%-7% of these clothes are sold for a second time," said Mark Dowds, the founder and chief executive of Responsible.

"We are enabling brands to not only become accountable for everything they produce, but also to financially benefit from a more circular and sustainable business model."

• 'Everyone' has to face fashion's climate impact

Responsible is operating in an area known as "re-commerce" - essentially a new term for second hand.

Sarah Friar, the Sion Mills-born chief executive of Nextdoor, is among the investors in the firm

There are some significant re-commerce platforms such as Depop, but fashion brands are taking a growing interest in being directly involved in the market.

The investment was led by Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and Techstart Ventures.

Sarah Friar, the Northern Ireland-born chief executive of the Nextdoor social network, has also taken a stake.

She said she was "excited to see another company from Northern Ireland step up with a global solution to help our planet".