# Italist

The first online marketplace for Italian fashion

## Elevator pitch
Italist is the first online marketplace for the $21 billion Italian personal luxury goods market. We list products that are held in-store by boutiques like Gucci, Valentino, Ferragamo, Dior, Saint Laurent. Items we sell are on average 30% cheaper than any other competitor due to the peculiar structure of Italian retail market (no importers, no distributors,…) and some of them can’t be found anywhere else online, and we have the broadest selection of Italian luxury items on the internet.

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/italist
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:8347
- Last updated: 2026-06-16T05:02:06Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-17T02:22:24Z

## Quick facts
- $1,500,000+ revenue in May.
- 60% growth quarter over quarter from Q4 2014.
- $18 million revenue-run-rate.
- Founders sold last company for $80M.
- 115+ partner boutiques, sold in 85 countries.
- Italist holds no inventory, leverages inventory of partners.
- Italist is already at break-even.

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:6587: 506(b) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:5158: 506(b) successful (USD)

## FAQ
1. **I love the concept and am interested in investing. However, I'm puzzled by this statement on the Web site: "For orders exceeding the amount of 1,000, you will need to enter your social security number..." I've never encountered such a requirement on an e-commerce site. I assum...**
   - Hi John thanks for asking. Billing is in Italy. Italian law ask to track apayments for more than 1000 euro. By April the billing will be swift to us and this well be removed. thanks
2. **(1) You mention your CAC is ca. $100 from Facebook and likely to fall. Can you comment on the LTV of your customers? (2) Can you comment on your supplier concentration, that is to say, does your largest merchant account for 10%, 50%, 90%, etc., of your sales? Thanks**
   - Facebook has 60% of mobile traffic. We will have a responsive web site in 4 weeks from now. That will hugely impact. CPsale is 100 usd average ticket is 700usd that means that we make money on the first sale (from 140-180 usd as margin). then 35% of buyers repeat acquisition in 12 months. Only few of our partners uploaded all their inventory (less than 10%) so sales are really concentrated now--> that can easily explain why the inventory potential can grow a lot
3. **Can I investment if I from Saudi Arabia?**
   - Hi Ali, we already have many customers from Saudi Arabia, for us it would be great to have you on board as investors! Big opportunities in the region. Raffaele
4. **this is a really novel idea. Kudos! One question - is your long term plan to build and run this company like Ramirez functions today or to find a buyer, as in the case with noosalab and zero9?**
   - Hi Dilraj, and thank you of the email. We want to build a huge and log term company
5. **Awesome Concept! When are you planning Series A?**
   - Hi Krishna, next round will be no earlier than 6 /8 months. Raffaele

## Team
- Raffaele Giovine (Chairman)
- Diego Abba (CEO)

## Recent posts
- Made in Italy (2015-08-10T17:20:31Z)

## Q&A
- Q: 𝗟𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗜𝗖𝗚 (𝗳𝗸𝗮 𝗜𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁) 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝘀 @ 𝟮𝟬% 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 ______________________________________________________ Hey 👋- I am the EA to Mr. Krishna Rungta. He is currently looking for a secondary market exit for his interest in Inspiration Commerce Group (ICG), following their acquisition of Italist. We are offering his 2,773 shares at a 20% discount to the official acquisition valuation to ensure a quick transfer. Official Value: $997 Our Price: $800 Transfer Method: Wefunder Interest Transfer (Buyer must be an accredited investor) This is a straightforward way to pick up ICG equity below the most recent deal price. If you are interested in adding this to your portfolio, let me know. 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁: - Book 1:1 Call: https://calendly.com/ea-guru99/ - Email: ea@guru99.ceo - WhatsApp: +91 63529 44881
- Q: Retailing is a here-today, gone tomorrow business with few barriers to entry. Why don't you offer better terms, such as preferred stock, 2x liquidation, 20% discount, esp. in light of no major vc investor with diligence who will force an eventual exit so this doesn't become a lifestyle for the founders?
- Q: I love the concept and am interested in investing. However, I'm puzzled by this statement on the Web site: "For orders exceeding the amount of 1,000, you will need to enter your social security number..." I've never encountered such a requirement on an e-commerce site. I assume it's an anti-fraud measure, so 2 questions: 1 -- Have you had a lot of problems with fraud? 2 -- Even honest shoppers would probably balk at this requirement, being rightly concerned about identity theft. So aren't you actually limiting your sales by requiring them to supply their SSN for purchases above 1,000?
  - A: Hi John thanks for asking. Billing is in Italy. Italian law ask to track apayments for more than 1000 euro. By April the billing will be swift to us and this well be removed. thanks
  - A: Hi billing platforms provide an integrated service to detect risky transactions. We basically had zero frauds last 6 months.
- Q: Hey, I am one of the 39 investors who invested in Italist. I would like to take an exit and cash out. I am not very sure how do i do it. Has anyone done it recently?
- Q: Any recent updates for investors?, I didn't see any updates recent years
  - A: Hi Prudhvi, thank you for the message. We are updating the investor directly (including Wefunder). At this stage and the size of the company, we don't want to disclose in public relevant information. some news here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaleighmoore/2023/03/03/italist-finding-success-in-the-international-luxury-ecommerce-marketplace/?sh=180ed7f3170c; please contact us at legal@italist.com to have specific updates on your investment. best regards
- Q: Are you sharing any investor's updates? If yes - how can i subscribe?
- Q: Are you a technology company or a marketing company?
- Q: Where can I see the bijoux?
- Q: How can I register?
- Q: Any mid year updates for investors?
  - A: Hi, we will provide updates after the summer. thanks
- Q: Hi , wanna to ask about the delivery charge . Understand that you may say because your retail price is cheaper than other competitors. However , sometimes shopping online , we may not exactly know the size , style .... are suitable for ourself. Return or refund is one of the important factor for online shopping. If the shipping cost is too high , I will hesitate to buy as delivery charge cannot be refund. I am not saying no delivery charge , but at least can be cheaper or if u buy certain amount (500 euro up can get free shipping ) such promotion. Because few times I wanna to buy from italist, when I checkout and realize the shipping cost is 46 euro. (I bought the item is only 350 euro) I give up and buy from others. Yes you are right , I may pay a bit more like 410 euro for that item from others ,but I still got a choice to refund total amount (410 euro) if item don’t suit me. On the other hand, if it doesn’t suit me after I bought from italist, I only get back 350 euro . I hope you can make some adjustment for your delivery charges in order to make your customer shopping without pressures. Finally I hope Italist will have a very great business
- Q: How about a news update? It's been quite a while.
  - A: hi J.W. thank you for your message, we typically update our investors once per quarter. You should refer to wefunder team to have access. Thank you!
- Q: What's is the min investment allowed? Do you take Loans?
  - A: Hi Everett, thank you for your message but we are not currently raising. Best, Raffaele
- Q: I purchased an item for my husbands birthday from your site and unfortunately I had to return it. To my dismay I was informed that it has cost me over $100 for shipping and duty fees to return these items. No one wants to spend $300 and only have $200 returned to them. FarFetch and MatchesFashion are able to provide free returns to their customers. This is an astronomical cost to your customers and it's unacceptable. Had I known I would have to loose this much money I would'e tried selling the item it on eBay instead! Please see your company's email below and I am yet to receive the refund whilst the returned item was accepted by your partner boutique on March 2nd which was 13 days ago. My return # is R00053892. Dear Tyesha, Your item has been received and our partner boutique has verified that it complies with our returns policy. Returned items will be refunded excluding the delivery and the return costs of shipping and any Import duty incurred from & to Italy (if any). You might be able to recover import duties for returned items by contacting your local customs bureau. We confirm that we have refunded you the amount of 229.01€ (319.67€ for the item less 67.49€ for Italian duty fees and 23.17€ for shipping costs). You will see the refund on you bank account as soon as your bank processes the transaction. This process may take several days. We remain at your disposal for any further inquiries. Best Regards, italist staff
- Q: My wife just bought something from Italist, great experience! Going to invest a little. Do you have any updates for last few months revenue, to help me decide how much?
  - A: Hi Dean, thanks for your question. We are still on track to hi the budget (x4 vs same period last year). Also please find a new update about us here: http://g-startup.com/g-startup-worldwide-global-finals/