Fab.com Slams Down $40M Series B
2011-12-07
NEW YORK, NY, Daily design e-commerce company announced the closing of $40M in Series B financing led by investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. Existing investors also contributed to the round including: Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, Baroda Ventures, SoftTech VC, and Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary of A-Grade Investments.
Fab.com, the world's fastest growing e-commerce company, today announced the closing of $40 million in Series B financing led by investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. Existing investors also contributed to the round including: Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, Baroda Ventures, SoftTech VC, and Ashton Kutcher - Guy Oseary and A-Grade Investments. As part of the announcement, Andreessen Horowitz General Partner and e-commerce icon Jeff Jordan will join Fab.com's board of directors.
Just six months since launching in June 2011, Fab.com has rapidly established itself as the number one website for design inspiration and sales. 1.2 million people have already joined Fab.com, which has grown by 300,000 new members per month the past two months. Each day, Fab.com presents its members with an exclusive collection of design sales across dozens of categories ranging from home products to jewelry to artwork to apparel to workplace to toys and outdoors products, all at up to 70% off of retail prices. Fab.com's members have already purchased more than 500,000 products. In November alone, the company processed nearly 100,000 orders.
Fab.com attributes its successful launch in 2011 to three unique aspects of the company:
(1) A laser-like focus on design. From the design aesthetic of Fab.com's website and mobile applications, to the products that are featured for sale, to the end-to-end customer experience, Fab.com is all about good design.
(2) Social commerce. More than 50% of Fab.com's 1.2 million members have come from social sharing.
(3) Innovation. Fab.com builds all of its own technology and is the world's pioneer in integrating social and commerce features to enhance the product discovery process.
Fab.com plans to use the funds to rapidly grow the business in 2012, with new investments in operations, technology, social commerce, and product expansion planned.
"We're truly humbled by the way so many people have embraced the Fab.com concept so quickly. We believe that everyone, everywhere can benefit from affordable design and that great design exists in every product category, at every price point," said Jason Goldberg, CEO. "We are constantly pushing the envelope at the intersection of social and commerce and content. What you see from us today is just the start. We will be the industry's leading innovator in merging social, commerce, and content to the benefit of consumers and our design suppliers. Smile, you're designed to."
"Fab.com has demonstrated amazing growth and has already become synonymous with design online," said Jordan, whose experience leading OpenTable, PayPal and eBay will be a valuable asset to the company. "Andreessen Horowitz seeks to invest in great entrepreneurs, who are building highly innovative new technology companies in big markets, and Fab.com fits the criteria perfectly."
"We have been investors in Fab.com since its launch, and we were always confident it would be a break-out e-commerce company," said Pravin Vazirani, a Menlo Ventures managing director and member of the Fab.com board. "The management team is deeply committed to their mission of being the most innovative force in design and delighting their customers. That's what's responsible for the company's phenomenal growth. We couldn't be more excited as investors."
With its large membership base, Fab.com is a highly sought after distribution channel for the more than five thousand designers who currently sell products on the site. In only six months time, the company is now flooded with requests from designers attempting to have their products featured. Several designers have said that one 72-hour sale on Fab.com is the equivalent of six-months of sales.
Membership to Fab.com is free, but the company maintains an invitation-only environment in order to maintain exceptional prices. New members are accepted daily through the site or via an invitation to join from an existing member. For more information about the company or to join, visit Fab.com.
About Fab.com
Fab.com is design. The website and mobile apps offer daily design inspirations and sales of up to 70% off retail as well as longer sales through shops. Membership is free, but numbers are restricted to maintain exceptional pricing. Members receive exclusive access to daily-curated design sales featuring the world's leading and emerging designers and manufacturers. Fab.com was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Jason Goldberg, formerly of XING AG, socialmedian, and Jobster, with design industry veteran Bradford Shellhammer, contributor to Dwell and formerly of Blu Dot and Design Within Reach in New York, NY, along with Deepa and Nishith Shah in Pune, India and Veerle Pieters in Deinze, Belgium. Fab.com's headquarters are in New York, NY. http://www.fab.com
About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth-stage funding to the best new technology companies. Founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz helps entrepreneurs become successful CEOs and build important and enduring companies. Its general partners are Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, John O'Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan and Peter Levine, all widely recognized experts in the creation, scaling and operation of high growth technology companies. The firm has $1.2 billion under management across two funds. Among its 70 investments are Airbnb, Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Jawbone, Lytro, Pinterest, Twitter and Zynga. The firm was established in June 2009 and is located in Menlo Park, California. http://www.a16z.com
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides smart capital for seed through growth technology companies in the consumer and enterprise sectors. For decades, the firm's market-driven research analysis has led to the identification of and successful exits in innovative technology markets. Notable research-areas of investment include Mobile (Siri, MobiTV, TeleNav), Enterprise storage (3Par), Communications (Acme Packet, Cavium Networks), and Consumer (Carbonite, Roku). Founded in 1976, Menlo's portfolio includes 70 public companies and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions. Throughout our history, Menlo's deep network of portfolio entrepreneurs, angels and advisors are a key resource made available to all of our family of investments. Menlo Ventures has $4 billion under management and is currently investing Menlo Ventures XI, a $400M fund with $20m allocated to our Menlo Talent Fund for fast seed funding. For more information, visit http://www.menlovc.com.
About First Round Capital
First Round Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. As seed-stage investors, we often provide a company's first outside capital - and are not afraid of funding pre-revenue companies. First Round Capital's portfolio is a community of web-enabled businesses led by entrepreneurs, guided by an active partnership and connected through a technology platform designed to support companies throughout their growth. The firm's current portfolio includes companies like StumbleUpon, Bazaarvoice, Modcloth, RockMelt, Uber and Square. First Round Capital invests nationally with offices in New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
About Baroda Ventures
Baroda Ventures is a Los Angeles based venture capital firm founded by philanthropist and technology entrepreneur David Bohnett, the founder of GeoCities. Baroda Ventures is focused on seed stage investments in consumer internet, e-commerce, SaaS, mobile, and digital media. In addition to Fab.com, other investments include Steelhouse, GraphEffect, and Pocket Change.
About SoftTech VC
Palo Alto-based SoftTech VC is a seed stage venture capital firm with $65M under management across 2 funds, $15M Fund II and $50M Fund III. One of the original super-angels, Jeff Clavier started investing in Consumer Internet opportunities, and raised one of the first micro-VC funds in 2007. SoftTech typically invests $250K to $750K in 20 startups per year - mobile services, next generation e-commerce and vertical SaaS being its core focus.
About A-Grade Investments
A-Grade Investments is an angel fund founded by long-time friends Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Ron Burkle to opportunistically invest in technology start-up companies.
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