Polyvore Announces $14 Million in Series C Funding
Jess Lee Becomes CEO, Pasha Sadri Becomes CTO
13 Million Monthly Visitors Discovering Style On Web's Largest Fashion Community Site
Where 1 Set is Created Every 2 Seconds
January 23, 2012 04:20 PM Eastern Standard Time
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Polyvore, Inc., the web's largest fashion community site, today announced $14 million in Series C financing, led by DAG Ventures and with participation from new investors Goldman Sachs and Vivi Nevo (NV Investments). Early Polyvore investors Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners also participated in this new funding round.
With this new funding available for technology innovation, Co-Founder and CEO Pasha Sadri will now focus on product strategy and engineering full-time as Chief Technology Officer, with Co-Founder and Vice President of Product Jess Lee becoming Chief Executive Officer.
Polyvore is known worldwide for fashion "sets" – digital collages that users create by combining their favorite products from across the web – and now has more than 13 million unique monthly visitors, an 80% increase over last year. The Polyvore user community creates on average one Polyvore set every two seconds, a total of 1.4 million sets per month.
"Polyvore empowers people to express their sense of style by making sets, or digital collages, filled with their favorite products. Our goal is to build the web's biggest platform for discovering fashion," said Polyvore Co-Founder and CEO Jess Lee.
"We've achieved tremendous growth over the last year and are thrilled to have such world-class investors backing us," said Co-Founder and CTO Pasha Sadri. "We plan to use the funds to recruit more engineering talent and accelerate our rapid growth. I'm excited to focus my time on driving our technology and product decisions."
"Over the past four years, Polyvore's talented team has proven its ability to be a game-changing force in fashion," said Dana Stalder, Polyvore board member and general partner at Matrix Partners, who has also invested in leading fashion ecommerce companies Gilt Groupe and JustFabulous. "Polyvore has already changed how people cultivate their sense of style. Now the company is ready to take the next step forward as it transforms the way brands market to consumers, profoundly altering the way people shop."
"Brands have always known that word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing. Polyvore helps brands build authentic buzz through genuine user engagement. Polyvore users are a global community of fashion lovers who promote their favorite products and share them with friends and followers," said Benchmark partner and Polyvore board member Peter Fenton, who is also on the boards of Yelp and Twitter.
Polyvore was founded in 2007 and has grown to include 39 employees. In recent months, designers and retailers including Gucci, Lancôme, and Nordstrom have turned to Polyvore for help increasing their digital reach and branding through innovative partnerships. The company also recently announced its plans to partner with COVERGIRL to host "Polyvore Live", a fashion show during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week that will showcase the collections of four emerging designers, modeled entirely by a cast of fashion bloggers.
About Polyvore
Polyvore is the web's largest fashion community site, where users are empowered to discover their style and set trends around the world. With over 13 million monthly unique visitors, Polyvore's global community has created over 42 million fashion sets that are shared across the web. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Polyvore is funded by Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners, DAG Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and NV Investments. For more information, please visit www.polyvore.com.
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