An electronic gadget retailer that sells primarily through eBay and Amazon has raised €2.5m in venture capital funds from Delta Partners.
Dublin-based e-commerce firm Luzern Solutions, which has developed a platform for managing the return and sale of consumer goods at point of sales, will use the funding to accelerate its international expansion.
The company estimates that roughly 6pc of consumer electronics products sold to consumers are returned to retailers.
Managing this supply chain and realising the maximum amount of value for this inventory is challenging to manufacturers and distributors, and it is in this gap Luzern has spotted an opportunity.
“With operations in Ireland, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, we were keen to bring on capital to support our rapid expansion,” said Luzern’s chief executive, Ken Doyle.
“We recently established operations in the US with one customer signed up so far and a number of others in the pipeline,” Doyle said.
Luzern’s proprietary software application Channel Optimiser empowers product manufacturers to manage the flow of consumer electronics goods.
It also enables Luzern to act in partnership with these companies and achieve the highest prices for the inventory through selling the goods on eBay, Amazon and PriceMinister, as well as its own website in Europe and the US.
The companies that Luzern currently manages and sells returned goods for include Archos, Brother, Creative, Palm, Philips and Sanyo, to name a few.
“Luzern is exactly the sort of Irish company we like to support,” said Dermot Berkery of Delta Partners.
“It is developing an unrivalled platform for managing and selling inventory, particularly B stock returned to retailers through e-commerce channels, particularly in Europe,” Berkery added.
By John Kennedy
