Poshmark acquires sneaker authentication platform Suede One

US second-hand fashion marketplace Poshmark has bought sneaker authentication platform Suede One for an undisclosed sum.

It marks the first acquisition by Poshmark as it continues to establish itself as one of the major players in the burgeoning resale market.

“We are laser-focused on making strategic investments that fuel the continued growth of our business, give the best overall experience for buyers and make our marketplace the number one, most trusted destination for sellers,” said Poshmark CEO and founder Manish Chandra in a statement.

Poshmark said that Suede One's virtual authentication capabilities will complement its own Posh Protect and Posh Authenticate features.

It said the acquisition will allow it to augment and scale the services to support its buyers and sellers on more transactions and begin offering virtual authentication for sneakers at multiple price points.

It said there is also the possibility to expand it to additional categories in the future.

Suede One snapped up by Poshmark

As the market for sought-after and limited-edition sneakers has boomed in recent years, so too has the issue of fashion fakes, which have become a thorn in the side of global resale platforms.

One of the companies tackling that problem is Suede One, which combines machine learning, computer vision and expert human review to virtually authenticate sneakers.

The company says that for popular sneakers like Jordan 1s and Yeezy 350s, its technology can automatically authenticate the majority of submissions with greater than 99 percent accuracy, based on internal testing.

For other sneakers, it uses human experts to review the submission with help from the company's proprietary authenticator tool.

“We built this company to solve a key challenge for the reseller community - creating technology that protects them from fraud and ensures fast, accurate authentication that they can rely on," said Suede One CEO Matt Forloine in a statement.

“Poshmark and Suede One share the same values of trust and focus on community, and by joining forces we'll be able to advance our technology and scale these services to more products and categories and benefit as many people as possible.”