Buyfair, a premium B2B overstock auction marketplace, has raised 85% of its equity crowdfunding campaign which launched on 15th November.
Buyfair aims to tackle the ongoing global problem of overstock, which in the UK manufacturing sector alone is estimated to be worth £5 billion.
The multi-lot auction marketplace allows vetted brands to sell in volume to buyers across different industries from stock they have gathering dust in warehouses.
According to buyfair CEO Dominic Speelman, the company will change how product is purchased and sold on a global scale: "Over the last 20 years, many brands have taken the decision to move manufacturing to the Far East because of cheaper mass production," he explained. "Companies demanding cheaper prices from factories are forced to buy product in enormous batches that become incredibly difficult to shift - as a result it takes up valuable storage space, increases warehouse costs, while simultaneously impacting our environment.
"Difficult trading conditions in recent years has also placed some manufacturers in real trouble. When you have an influx of stock, a fall in demand and uncertainty, it's almost the perfect storm."
Buyfair's acution system and complex, patent-pending algorithms provide buyers with an immediate, efficient and sustainable way to purchase product in volume, meaning long lead times are no longer necessary.
"For years overstock has been a taboo subject for retailers and manufacturers as it is seen as a management failure," Speelman continued. "But the scale of the issue is now so severe that companies are urgently searching for a solution. Buyfair embraces a more sustainable practice by creating an opportunity where items can be used and re-purposed rather than discarded.
"The world has had enough of using natural resources to create new products that are thrown away after a single use."
The company is aiming to raise £250,000 in its second round of crowdfunding via Crowdcube, and is close to reaching that target after just 10 days.
Buyfair CTO Oliver Pluckrose added: "The multi-lot auction can display to buyers, in real-time, their allocation of stock based on their current bid price and required number of lots, when an auction has multiple buyers competing to win a finite amount of lots from a seller.
"It guarantees to the seller that in any of their auctions buyfair will find the best solution to selling all their stock for the highest achievable price based on those buyers bidding in the auction and the lot quantities they required."
