SSENSE: the $4B luxury fashion platform that filed for CCAA with $371M in debt

SSENSE was founded in 2003 in Montreal by Rami Atallah and his brothers, growing from a small online boutique into one of the world's most influential luxury fashion e-commerce platforms. It carried brands like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Off-White, and built a loyal following among young fashion consumers with its editorial content and carefully curated selection. In June 2021, Sequoia Capital made a minority investment that valued the company at over $4 billion.

The company made several strategic missteps that accelerated its decline. In April 2018, SSENSE acquired the fashion discovery site Polyvore from Yahoo and immediately shut it down, deleting years of user-curated content without warning. It later apologized, but the damage to its relationship with the creative community was done. In December 2022, a cyberattack compromised employee data, and SSENSE failed to notify affected former employees or government regulators, leading to further reputational harm.

By 2023, SSENSE was struggling. It laid off 138 employees (7% of its workforce) that year. Competitors like Farfetch (which was itself acquired by Coupang in 2024 at a fraction of its peak value) and Net-a-Porter were also struggling, suggesting a broader luxury e-commerce downturn. In August 2025, SSENSE filed for bankruptcy protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, reporting $371 million CAD in debt — including over $93 million owed to vendors. The company put itself up for sale to be taken over by its creditors.