Peter Semple

Chief Executive Officer Depop

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Peter Semple is Chief Executive Officer of Depop, the peer-to-peer fashion resale marketplace founded in London in 2011 and now home to more than 56 million registered users. He is a brand and marketing person who ended up running the company — he joined in 2019 as Chief Marketing Officer, took over as interim chief executive in May 2025 when Etsy moved his predecessor to its own executive team, and was confirmed permanently that August after Etsy looked at the alternatives and chose the person already doing the job. Fifteen months into the permanent role he sold the business: eBay agreed to buy Depop from Etsy in February 2026 for around $1.2 billion and completed the purchase on 30 July 2026, paying $1.4 billion in cash. Depop keeps its brand, platform and culture inside eBay, and Semple is still its chief executive.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Depop; appointed interim CEO effective 5 May 2025 and made permanent on 24 July 2025, effective 1 August.
• Led Depop through its sale from Etsy to eBay — agreed February 2026 at approximately $1.2 billion, completed 30 July 2026 with $1.4 billion paid in cash after preliminary purchase price adjustments.
• Ran a marketplace with approximately $1 billion of gross merchandise sales in 2025, nearly 60% year-over-year growth in the United States, 7 million active buyers — nearly 90% of them under 34 — and more than 3 million active sellers.
• Joined Depop in 2019 as Chief Marketing Officer, building the global brand and marketing organisation credited with driving mass adoption of buying and selling secondhand fashion.
• Spent seven years leading product and marketing innovation projects at Google’s Creative Lab in New York and London.
• Earlier worked in creative agencies on Converse, Nike, O2 and Coca-Cola.

Professional Journey

Semple’s background is in creative work rather than commerce. He worked in agencies on Converse, Nike, O2 and Coca-Cola, then spent seven years at Google’s Creative Lab across New York and London, leading product and marketing innovation projects that ranged over existing Google products and emerging technologies. Creative Lab is an unusual training ground: it sits between product and advertising, and the job is to make new technology legible and desirable to people who have no reason to care about it yet.

That is close to the problem he took on at Depop. He joined in 2019 as Chief Marketing Officer, running the global brand and creative engine at a moment when secondhand fashion was still positioned as the thrifty alternative. Depop’s own account of the period credits his teams with driving mass adoption — moving resale from alternative to normal, particularly among people under 34, who now make up nearly 90% of the marketplace’s buyers. Depop had started in 2011 as a social shopping app for readers of the fashion and culture magazine PIG, and the cultural, community-led character of the platform is the asset a chief marketing officer there is custodian of.

Etsy had acquired Depop in 2021, and in December 2024 it began reshuffling its executive bench. Kruti Patel Goyal, Depop’s chief executive since September 2022, returned to Etsy as President and Chief Growth Officer from 1 January 2025. On 27 March 2025 Etsy announced that Semple would take over as interim Chief Executive Officer of Depop from 5 May, leading the business “on an interim basis until the company identifies its next leader”. The search ended where it started. On 24 July 2025 Depop announced his permanent appointment, effective 1 August. Josh Silverman, then Etsy’s chief executive, said Semple had shown during the interim period “a proven ability to lead and inspire teams” and a dedication to Depop’s mission, and that Etsy “couldn’t be more confident in his vision for the future”. Semple’s own comment placed the arc plainly: six years at Depop, “from building our brand as Chief Marketing Officer to guiding the company as Interim Chief Executive Officer”.

The defining event of his tenure came seven months later. On 18 February 2026 eBay and Etsy jointly announced that eBay would acquire Depop for approximately $1.2 billion in cash. The rationale on eBay’s side was demographic and categorical — fashion is a more than $10 billion annual GMV category for eBay, and Depop reaches a Gen Z and Millennial audience eBay does not. On Etsy’s side it was focus: Patel Goyal, by then Etsy’s chief executive, described it as letting Etsy “focus exclusively” on its core marketplace. Semple’s own statement was about acceleration rather than exit, thanking Kruti and the Etsy team and framing eBay’s experience in consumer-to-consumer fashion as the way to grow Depop’s marketplace in the US and beyond.

The transaction closed on 30 July 2026, with eBay paying $1.4 billion in cash after preliminary purchase price adjustments reflecting investments Depop had made before completion. Depop now operates as a complementary business inside eBay, retaining its brand, platform, customer experience and culture, and Semple was quoted as its chief executive in the completion announcement. Since then the company has continued to run its own programme — a global campaign with Zara Larsson in July 2026, a partnership with Spotify in August, and its own research arguing that resale selling teaches young people practical business skills.

Depop today reports approximately 56.3 million registered users, more than 68 million items listed, up to 600,000 new listings a day and over $6 billion of goods sold by its community to date. It remains headquartered in London with an office in New York.

Education

No education record was established for this profile. Depop’s own leadership biography names no institution, and neither Etsy’s proxy statement nor any of the transaction filings mentions one. Nothing is asserted.