Image source: Faire
Faire, an online wholesale marketplace that connects local, independent retailers with brands and artisans, raised $260 million in a series F round of funding led by Sequoia Capital, the company announced Thursday.
After the latest round, Faire is now valued at $7 billion, nearly triple its previous valuation of $2.5 billion from its Series E in October 2020, which was also led by Sequoia.
The funding included existing investors Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator, DST Global, Dragoneer, D1 Capital Partners and Norwest Venture Partners, plus two new ones, Baillie Gifford and Wellington Management.
The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2017 by former Square Inc employees Max Rhodes, Jeff Kolovson, Daniele Perito and Marcelo Cortes, helps retailers find unique wholesale merchandise for their stores that might not be available on Amazon.com Inc or at Walmart.
Over the past year, Faire said it has more than tripled its business, selling over 75 million products and serving 200,000 retailers across North America and Europe, as well as 20,000 brands from over 80 countries.
Faire employs about 500 people and expects to double its headcount in the next year.
On Thursday, Rhodes, the company’s chief executive officer, said, “Faire’s pace of growth signals that independent retailers across the globe are evolving and changing the face of the retail industry as we have known it. We have always believed in this thriving community of entrepreneurs and are honored to be a navigating partner for them through the pandemic and into these periods of recovery.”
The new capital will be used to continue expanding the company’s presence across Europe and into rapidly growing categories like food and apparel, which, Rhodes said, accounts for over a third of all products sold on the platform.
He added that Faire also plans to “find new ways to serve its existing communities as they continue to navigate the post-pandemic shift to an omnichannel retail landscape.”
Ravi Gupta, a partner at Sequoia Capital and former COO and CFO of Instacart, said, “We are in the midst of a multi-decade digital transformation. The world-class team at Faire is leading the way in digitizing the multi trillion-dollar global wholesale market. We at Sequoia are more excited than ever about the opportunity ahead and we are thrilled to continue our partnership."
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Source: Equities News
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