---
title: "Highstock’s $30M a16z Series A: $1B Listed, Sell-Through Dark"
description: "a16z led Highstock’s $30 million Series A on September 10, 2026. The NYC surplus-inventory marketplace now lists more than $1 billion of product — ten times the $100 million it confirmed at a $5.5 million Greylock seed. Valuation, GMV, and take rate were not disclosed."
date: 2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z
tags: ["2026-vc-news", "startup-funding", "venture-capital", "a16z", "consumer", "marketplace", "nyc-startups"]
source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/2026-highstock-30m-series-a-a16z
---

# Highstock’s $30M a16z Series A: $1B Listed, Sell-Through Dark

> a16z led Highstock’s $30 million Series A on September 10, 2026. The NYC surplus-inventory marketplace now lists more than $1 billion of product — ten times the $100 million it confirmed at a $5.5 million Greylock seed. Valuation, GMV, and take rate were not disclosed.

**[Andreessen Horowitz](/fund/andreessen-horowitz)** led a **$30 million Series A** for New York’s **[Highstock](/startup/highstock)** on **September 10, 2026**. a16z AI partner **Olivia Moore** is joining the board; **Jeff Jordan** is an advisor ([a16z](https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-highstock/), [WWD](https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/highstock-b2b-marketplace-surplus-inventory-raises-30m-a16z-1239204407/)). Valuation was not disclosed.

The number next to the check is **more than $1 billion of inventory listed** — ten times the **$100 million** Highstock confirmed at its **$5.5 million** [Greylock](/fund/greylock-partners) seed on **February 27, 2025** ([Fortune](https://fortune.com/2025/02/27/exclusive-two-instacart-alumni-raise-5-5-million-to-build-highstock-an-ebay-for-big-brands-with-excess-inventory/)). Listed is not sold. GMV, recovery rate, take rate, and ARR stay dark.

## Key facts

| Field | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Company | [Highstock](/startup/highstock) — private B2B surplus-inventory marketplace |
| Round | **$30M** Series A (Sep 10, 2026) |
| Lead | [Andreessen Horowitz](/fund/andreessen-horowitz) |
| Board / advisor | Olivia Moore (board); Jeff Jordan (advisor) |
| Prior | **$5.5M** seed, Feb 27, 2025 — Greylock lead; Max Mullen participated |
| HQ | 734 Broadway, New York; India office in Gurugram ([site](https://www.highstock.com/)) |
| Valuation / GMV / take rate | **Not disclosed** |

## Who uses it — and for what job

**Sellers:** brands that will not put leftover SKUs through TJX-style off-price. Beachhead is beauty. WWD named **Laura Geller, Bliss, and Versed**. a16z: **100+** major brands; **~60%** of volume from companies with **more than $500 million** in annual revenue.

**Buyers:** **100+** wholesale accounts — live sellers and international e-commerce. WWD: international is **40%** of the business; named live-commerce buyer **The Boyzzz** sells on [Whatnot](/startup/whatnot) (~170,000 followers, 145,000+ sales). Fortune’s seed print: typical lot **$20,000**; Fragrance Depot (Canada) and allbeauty.com (U.K.). Ticket size was not restated.

**Job:** move short-dated lots without a public fire sale. Highstock matches, then runs logistics, compliance, payments, and paperwork. At seed, buyers bid and brands accept, reject, or counter — Highstock does **not** set the price (Fortune).

CEO **Camille van Horne** ran [Instacart](/startup/instacart) fulfillment as a Director of Product for six years. CTO **Sean Cashin** spent a decade on Instacart engineering (a16z). Fortune named **Ashish Sinha** cofounder and president at seed; the September a16z note names Camille and Sean.

## What changed in 18 months

| Signal | Feb 2025 seed (Fortune) | Sep 2026 Series A |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Listed inventory | **$100M** | **$1B+** (a16z / company site) |
| Brands | **50** | **100+** “major” (a16z) |
| Large-brand mix | **30%** of brands **>$50M** revenue | **60%** of **volume** from **>$500M** revenue brands |
| Cross-border | **50%** of transactions | **40%** of business (WWD) |
| Landfill claim | not in Fortune | **10M+** pounds diverted (company site) |

Do not treat the mix rows as one growth series. Fortune measured share of **brands**; a16z measured share of **volume**, at a 10× higher revenue cutoff.

Van Horne told WWD beauty excess is a **shelf-life** problem — traditional retailers reject goods with **less than 18 months** of life — while apparel excess is **seasonal** and “five times the size of the beauty liquidation market.” Apparel is launching now. No apparel GMV was disclosed.

## Why a16z — and what is not proven

a16z’s thesis: leftover lots are unstructured (no comps, a different buyer per batch), so the winner is **AI-native and brand-safe**. Moore puts the AI practice on a consumer-ops board. Jordan is the marketplace operator. Greylock seed partners: **Mike Duboe** and **Christine Kim**. a16z did **not** say Greylock or Mullen returned.

| Approach | Tradeoff |
| --- | --- |
| Off-price (TJX, Ross) | Clears volume; cheapens the brand in the home market |
| Brokers / jobbers | Relationship-driven; opaque recovery |
| Destruction | Protects brand; writes off cash |
| Highstock (claimed) | Private matching + ops; **sell-through unproven in public** |
| [Whatnot](/startup/whatnot) / TikTok Live | Downstream demand, not a brand-side control layer |

**Missing on a $30 million Series A:** valuation, GMV, sell-through of the $1 billion list, take rate, current lot size, apparel volume, and the names behind the $500 million-revenue volume claim. WWD’s disclosed beauty logos are mid-tier, not conglomerates.

The thesis works if Highstock can **clear** apparel lots the way it listed beauty — and if recovery beats a quiet write-off. Until GMV or a recovery rate prints, **$1 billion listed** is a supply-side claim.

Related: [Highstock profile](/startup/highstock) · [a16z](/fund/andreessen-horowitz) · [Greylock](/fund/greylock-partners) · [NYC marketplaces](/nyc-marketplaces-etsy-resyhello-vertical-winners) · [September 2026 hub](/2026-september-vc-news).

**By:** [Venture Capital Tracker](https://venturecapitaltracker.com/editorial-policy)
**Last updated:** September 10, 2026

**Editorial note:** AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.