Rebecca Hunt, early stage investor at Octopus Ventures, which includes Depop and WaveOptics in its portfolio, comments::

"While there are always multiple drivers for acquisitions, we’ve now seen two UK companies acquired by US giants in the space of a week, both with a clear focus on engaging Gen Z.

“The hardest thing about appealing to a Gen Z audience is that they are astute at picking up when a brand is not authentic; it was one of the things that first attracted us to Depop as we could see their brand and core DNA genuinely resonated with their community. This is incredibly hard to replicate and creates long term differentiation to other marketplaces”.

“The spending power of these younger consumers is already considerable and is going to grow significantly over time. Businesses need to make sure they're in a position to reach this audience, and their wallets, so are busy snapping up the technology that gives them the best chance of doing so.  

“Etsy, which has a predominantly millennial customer base, has said explicitly that it saw Depop as the re-sale home of the Gen Z consumer, and would enable them to deepen their reach into this market.

“Snap Inc’s acquisition of WaveOptics reflects their belief that augmented reality is the future, with Gen Z already very familiar using the technology through Snapchat.

“This is potentially just the beginning, as I think we’ll see lots more deals of this nature, with large established companies moving quickly to acquire the technology and brands required to reach the next generation of consumers.

"At Octopus Ventures we invest in pioneers that we believe will affect real change in the future of the way we do business and live our lives. Depop and WaveOptics are businesses we invested in and we're now seeing the vision they had at their initial pitch come to fruition".