TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Fab Raises $150M In Series D Round

By TechTaffy Desk

Fab has raised $150 million in a Series D round of financing. This $150 million is the first part of a larger Series D round that the company says is expected to be completed over the next few months. The latest investment puts the total amount raised by Fab to more than $310 million.

Among the companies to invest in Fab is Chinese Internet giantTencent; the company will also appoint a director to the Fab board. Other investors include ITOCHU Technology Ventures, and existing investors, Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, RTP Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Lars Hinrichs, and Docomo Capital.

Jason Goldberg (Founder and CEO, Fab): There are currently only four e-commerce companies in the world that are valued at more than $10 billion: Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, and Rakuten. We believe that Fab has a legitimate chance to be the fifth by leading in Emotional Commerce.

Fab says it will use the investment for enhancements to its supply chain, logistics, customer service, technology, and merchandising, as well as international growth. The company will open a new Fab-operated warehouse in Netherlands this year, and a second Fab-operated warehouse in the Las Vegas area next year.

Fab will also be investing in developing products exclusive to Fab. The company is working with over 15,000 design partners to collaborate on new designs. Fab is additionally putting funds in mobile and social, and says there are newer features in the pipeline.

A quick look at some Fab stats:

  • In the first two years, nearly 14 million people have registered with Fab.
  • Fab customers have purchased nearly 6 million products from Fab.
  • Fab sold 1 product every 5 seconds last year.
  • 50% of Fab’s sales are of home products.
  • 10% of Fab’s sales are art.
  • 10% of Fab’s sales are jewelry.
  • 20% of Fab’s sales are fashion and fashion accessories.
  • The typical Fab customer is 25 to 40 years old.
  • 60% of Fab customers are female.
  • 35% of Fab’s sales are on mobile. Fab’s mobile purchasers also order more, more often, and at higher basket sizes.
  • Fab has worked with more than 15,000 designers.
  • The company is on its way to more than doubling sales in 2013 over 2012, (which was 5 times more than 2011).
  • Fab now sells products in 27 countries and 40% of our sales today occur outside the U.S.
  • 75% of Fab’s orders ship within 24 hours of being placed.

[Image courtesy: Fab]

Just in

Series A

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
Around the web

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 
Fundings

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.
Around the web

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 
IT

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.