Poshmark, a Menlo Park, California-based fashion community marketplace, secured $25m in funding.
Backers included Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Shea Ventures and SoftTech VC.
The company, which has raised $47.2m in total funding also from Rachel Zoe and Ashton Kutcher, intends to use the funds to scale the business and expand its services beyond women’s fashion.
Founded in 2011 by Manish Chandra, CEO, Poshmark is a community marketplace for fashion where any woman can buy, sell or share her personal style with millions of shoppers and over 700,000 sellers.
In addition to the new round, the company is also launching its new app for the Apple Watch featuring real-time personalized updates and new inventory listings from favorite brands and designers. Editors will also be curating the best and most popular items in the marketplace to be displayed directly on the Apple Watch.
FinSMEs
21/04/2015
Press Release
Poshmark, The Largest Community Marketplace for Fashion, Announces $25 Million in Funding
Social commerce’s breakout star is set to double its revenue in just six months, hitting a run rate of $200 million in annual sales this quarter as it debuts its newest innovation on the Apple Watch
MENLO PARK, Calif., April 21, 2015 – Today Poshmark, the largest community marketplace for fashion where any woman can buy, sell and share her personal style, announced that it has raised $25 million in new financing from Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Shea Ventures, and SoftTech VC bringing the company’s total funding to $47.2 million. The investment comes as the company is set to double its revenue in just six months this quarter, hitting a $200 million run rate in annual sales – demonstrating that its community-driven model is shaping the future of shopping. In addition to the new round, Poshmark is also unveiling its next innovation, going beyond mobile and onto your wrist by creating one of the first fashion experiences for the Apple Watch, allowing its millions of users to stay even more connected.
Since its launch three years ago, Poshmark has bet everything on mobile, building a passionate community of women who can connect, buy and sell from each other – right from their phones. Because any woman can participate in this new economy with ease, there is currently over two million dollars worth of inventory being uploaded onto the marketplace every day – everything from resale to new, in-season merchandise. The key to Poshmark’s growth lies within its vibrant community where women help each other discover new items, leading to an order being placed every 5 seconds. These Poshmark “Stylists” create a unique social merchandising engine – when they curate the best items to their followers they help match supply and demand – leading to better discovery for buyers and more sales for sellers. Women are curating over one million items daily and over two billion social connections have been made to date. The result is an addictive community-driven shopping experience where women can directly connect with each other and everything they see and love is immediately available for purchase.
“The future of shopping blurs the line between inspiration, personal relationships and commerce. While traditional marketplaces have only buyers and sellers, Poshmark has pioneered an entirely new model that introduces a third role to empower and leverage our most valuable asset, our highly engaged community,” said Manish Chandra, founder and CEO of Poshmark. “We’re introducing a concept that is completely new, where social and commerce are intrinsically connected, combining the power of the two to create an infinitely scalable marketplace. It is this unique social environment that is allowing women to build six-figure businesses on the marketplace.”
Today’s Series C financing announcement of $25 million brings Poshmark’s total funding to $47.2 million. The company is also backed by celebrity investors Rachel Zoe and Ashton Kutcher. Last year, Poshmark’s focus was building out the marketplace to create a seamless buying and selling experience. Now, with the company’s latest round of financing, Poshmark will focus on scaling the business to work closely with designers and brands in the marketplace and expand its services beyond women’s fashion.
“Poshmark understood the value of building an authentic community from day one and is effectively leveraging personal relationships to drive commerce,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Director of Mayfield, also an early investor in Lyft. “They are disrupting the $350 billion market of how women buy and sell fashion, similar to how Lyft is disrupting transportation.”
In order to build the world’s most connected shopping experience ever, Poshmark will continue its real-time innovation as mobile platforms evolve, integrating with the Apple Watch at launch. The first generation Poshmark for Apple Watch app will feature real-time personalized updates on everything a woman wants when shopping – new inventory listings from her favorite brands and designers to price notifications on the items she’s been eyeing. Poshmark’s editors will also be curating the best and most popular items in the marketplace to be displayed directly on the Apple Watch. This new integration is expected to increase Poshmark’s already unprecedented user engagement where women spend up to 25 minutes per day in the app, opening it up to 9 times each day.
About Poshmark
Founded in 2011, Poshmark is the largest community marketplace for fashion where any woman can buy, sell and share her personal style. With millions of shoppers and over 700,000 sellers, Poshmark brings together a vibrant community of women everyday to express themselves and share their love of fashion. The company has made it so simple to sell your style that the Poshmark community uploads over two million dollars worth of inventory into the marketplace every day – right from their phones. For more information, please visit www.poshmark.com.