The Little Loop secures £750k pre-seed to power white-label retailer take-back schemes
This article covers The Little Loop, a Brighton-based greentech startup, closing a pre-seed funding round of £750k from The FSE Group’s growth fund in the South East and the FSE Business Angel Network. The funding will accelerate product development and key hires for its B2B2C clothing trade-in and resale platform, supporting retailers and consumers in the UK clothing resale market.
Brighton-based greentech startup The Little Loop has closed a pre-seed funding round of £750,000 from The FSE Group’s growth fund in the South East and FSE’s Business Angel Network to accelerate product development and make key hires for its B2B2C clothing trade-in and resale platform. The investment underlines growing investor interest in circular retail solutions that help brands meet sustainability targets without adding in-house operational burden.
Why it matters
The Little Loop targets a part of fashion that is quickly moving from niche to mainstream. The UK clothing resale market is already worth about £7bn and accounts for almost one in four fashion transactions, with forecasts suggesting the market could double by 2029. At the same time, consumer appetite for pre-loved clothing is broadening — 67% of 18–34-year-olds and 61% of 35–54-year-olds bought or sold pre-loved fashion online last year — and rising regulatory and corporate sustainability expectations are nudging retailers towards take-back and reuse programmes.
Inside the product
The Little Loop provides a software-enabled B2B2C service that links consumers and retailers through trade-in and resale flows. Consumers can trade in used garments for curated, quality-checked and cleaned preloved items or receive vouchers from partner brands. Retailers integrate the platform into their own websites so they can offer take-back schemes without running the logistics themselves. The startup is currently focused on children’s clothing and plans to expand into adult fashion.
Established retail relationships include John Lewis and JoJo Maman Bébé, which suggest the platform is positioned to plug into existing retail supply chains rather than build direct-to-consumer operations from scratch.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by The FSE Group’s growth fund in the South East, with additional capital from the FSE Business Angel Network. The FSE Group is a regional investor that backs early-stage businesses in the South East, combining grant-style investment with access to angel networks and operational support.
In the announcement, Jonathan Day, Investor at The FSE Group, said:
We look forward to supporting Charlotte and her dynamic team as they take the business forward.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Charlotte Morley, Co-founder & CEO at The Little Loop, said:
We’re delighted to have secured investment from The FSE Group and its Business Angel Network as we move into the next stage of growth. The UK clothing resale market, already worth £7bn and accounting for almost 1 in 4 fashion transactions, is forecast to double by 2029. This, together with changing legislation, means that embracing resale is no longer optional for brands. This funding will help us bring our much-needed solution to more customers and we’re thrilled to be working with FSE on our growth journey.
Morley and her team bring experience from Not on the High Street, Gap and ASOS, which the company says helps when negotiating integrations with established retailers and designing resale journeys that fit existing customer experiences.
The bigger picture
The Little Loop’s raise sits at the intersection of two trends: rising consumer reuse of clothing and increased pressure on retailers to demonstrate circularity. By offering a white-label route to take-back schemes, the company addresses a practical barrier for many brands — operational complexity — rather than trying to compete solely on price or curation.
For greentech investors, the model combines measurable environmental impact with retail distribution partners that can drive transaction volume, which may make it easier to translate pilots into recurring revenue.
The funding also reflects a broader UK picture: regional growth funds and angel networks remain active in seeding startups that link technology and sustainability, and solutions that can retrofit into existing retail ecosystems are likely to attract further attention as resale continues to scale across the UK and Europe.
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