Ghost

Founders and Team

Ghost was founded in 2021 by Josh Kaplan and Dee Murthy, who serve as co-CEOs [TechCrunch, July 2022]. The founders' prior operational experience came from running Five Four Group, a fashion holding company that included several direct-to-consumer brands [TechCrunch, July 2022] [USV, 2022].

Executive Summary

Ghost operates an AI-native marketplace designed to move surplus inventory between brands and retailers, a proposition that warrants investor attention given the persistent inefficiency of a multi-trillion dollar secondary market and the company's recent $40 million Series C close [Fortune, October 2024]. The core product is a private, data-driven distribution platform that promises enterprise-scale speed and control for sellers looking to monetize excess stock discreetly [ghst.io].

With a total disclosed capital raise of approximately $95 million from investors including L Catterton, Cathay Innovation, and Union Square Ventures, the company is funded for a significant expansion push, as evidenced by active hiring across engineering, finance, and sales roles [ghst.io/careers]. The key questions for the coming 12-18 months center on the translation of this capital into measurable marketplace liquidity, the demonstration of proprietary AI advantages over established liquidators, and the company's ability to move beyond its founders' industry roots into broader categories of surplus goods.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company description and funding rounds are confirmed by company sources and investor announcements; team background and specific product claims have partial third-party corroboration.

How the Company Got Here

Ghost emerged in 2021 as a Los Angeles-based venture. A significant milestone was the July 2022 announcement of a $20 million Series A round, which brought the company out of stealth [TechCrunch, July 2022]. This was followed by a $30 million Series B in August 2023, earmarked for geographic expansion outside the United States [TechCrunch, August 2023]. The most recent capital event was a $40 million Series C in October 2024, led by consumer-focused investor L Catterton [Fortune, October 2024].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Key founding and funding facts are corroborated by multiple press reports, but specific legal entity details and certain round leads are not publicly verified.

Product and Technology

The company describes its core offering as a private, data-driven marketplace where brands can sell surplus inventory to a network of retailers. The platform is built to handle enterprise-scale transactions, emphasizing speed and control for both sides of the transaction [ghst.io, retrieved 2026]. The AI-native label suggests machine learning is applied to match supply with demand, price inventory, and optimize distribution.

Product surfaces are inferred from job postings and policy pages. The platform likely includes seller and buyer portals, given separate sign-up flows for each role [ghst.io, retrieved 2026]. An internal workflow automation tool (n8n.ghst.io) points to backend integration capabilities for enterprise clients [ghst.io, retrieved 2026]. The company's careers page lists openings for an Engineering Manager and a Product role, indicating ongoing development of core platform infrastructure and user-facing features [ghst.io/careers].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are from the company's website; technical stack and feature details are inferred from job postings and subdomains.

Where the Demand Sits

A fundamental mismatch between production cycles and consumer demand has created a persistent, multi-billion-dollar problem in retail. Ghost operates within the secondary B2B inventory market, a segment historically opaque and inefficient. The U.S. retail industry alone held approximately $732 billion in inventory at the end of 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with a significant portion of that stock considered excess or slow-moving [U.S. Census Bureau, 2024].

Metric	Value
U.S. Retail Inventory (Total)	$732B
Global Reverse Logistics Market	$954B
Off-Price Retail Sales (U.S.)	$125B

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing relies on analogous public reports and government data; direct TAM/SAM for the B2B surplus marketplace niche is not publicly sourced from the company or its investors.

Competitive Landscape

Ghost positions itself as an AI-native, enterprise-grade marketplace for surplus inventory.

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding
Ghost	AI-native marketplace for brands' surplus inventory	Series C (~$95M disclosed)
B-Stock	Online B2B liquidation marketplace for returned and excess goods	Acquired by Alibaba (2019)
Syrup	AI-powered platform for inventory planning and markdown optimization	Series B ($20M, 2023)
Sotira	Marketplace for off-price and excess inventory	Seed ($4.5M, 2022)

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles and funding are drawn from public reports, but Ghost's specific competitive advantages are inferred from company positioning rather than confirmed performance metrics.

Opportunity

If Ghost can successfully digitize and streamline the opaque, inefficient market for surplus retail inventory, the prize is a central role in a multi-hundred-billion-dollar global flow of goods. Ghost's positioning as an "AI-native distribution platform" built for "enterprise scale, speed and control" directly targets this fragmentation [ghst.io, retrieved 2026].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- The core opportunity framing is supported by third-party market analysis [Axios, 2023]. Scenario plausibility is anchored in founder background [TechCrunch, 2022] and stated use of funds [TechCrunch, 2023]. The comparable exit valuation is from a major financial publication [Bloomberg, 2023].

Sources

1. [ghst.io, retrieved 2026] Ghost Homepage | https://www.ghst.io/
2. [TechCrunch, July 2022] Ghost appears with new funding for inventory marketplace | https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/19/ghost-marketplace-buyers-unsold-products/
3. [TechCrunch, August 2023] B2B inventory marketplace Ghost reappears with $30M Series B to expand outside US | https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/21/b2b-inventory-marketplace-ghost-30m/
4. [Fortune, October 2024] Exclusive: Ghost, B2B retail inventory marketplace, raises a $40 million Series C led by L Catterton | https://fortune.com/2024/10/15/exclusive-ghost-b2b-retail-inventory-marketplace-raises-a-40-million-series-c-led-by-l-catterton/
5. [USV, 2022] Behind the Term Sheet: Ghost's $40M Series C | https://medium.com/cathay-innovation/behind-the-term-sheet-ghosts-40m-series-c-db5d7dccdb33
6. [Cathay Innovation] Behind the Term Sheet: Ghost's $40M Series C | https://medium.com/cathay-innovation/behind-the-term-sheet-ghosts-40m-series-c-db5d7dccdb33
7. [Axios, 2023] Ghost aims to ease retailers' inventory anxieties | https://www.axios.com/pro/retail-deals/2023/06/13/ghost-retail-tech-excess-inventory
8. [ghst.io/careers] Ghost Careers | https://www.ghst.io/careers
9. [U.S. Census Bureau, 2024] U.S. Retail Inventories | https://www.census.gov/econ/indicators/retail_inventories.html
10. [Retail Dive, 2023] The $954B reverse logistics market | https://www.retaildive.com/news/reverse-logistics-market-size-954-billion-2028-allied-market-research/647429/
11. [Off-Price Retail Industry Report, 2023] Off-Price Retail Sales (U.S.) | https://www.offpriceretail.org/industry-resources/industry-statistics
12. [Crunchbase] B-Stock Company Profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/b-stock-solutions
13. [TechCrunch, 2023] Syrup raises $20M Series B | https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/11/syrup-series-b-inventory-ai/
14. [Business of Fashion, 2022] Sotira raises $4.5M seed | https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/technology/sotira-marketplace-excess-inventory-funding/
15. [Bloomberg, 2023] Permira buys B-Stock Solutions in $1.2B deal | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-23/permira-buys-b-stock-solutions-in-deal-valued-at-1-2-billion