- Faire, a company that is simplifying the wholesale buying process, announced it recently raised $150 million in Series D funding
Faire — a company that simplifies the wholesale buying process — announced recently that it raised a $150 million Series D round of funding co-led by Lightspeed Ventures and Founders Fund. Khosla Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, and YC Continuity also joined the funding round. Including this round of funding, Faire has raised nearly $270 million since it was founded under 3 years ago. And it nearly doubles its valuation from $535 million from the Series C round of funding last year thus making the company valued at over $1 billion (unicorn status), according to VentureBeat.
Faire originally launched in San Francisco a couple of years ago under the name “Indigo Fair.” And Faire was originally founded by former Square employees Max Rhodes, Daniele Perito, and Marcelo Cortes.
Now Faire has more than 193 employees across its offices in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Kitchener-Waterloo. And now Faire is seeing about $1 million in daily sales.
The company was founded with the mission of helping local retailers and makers break free from the inefficiencies associated with the wholesale model. So far, Faire has on-board 7,000 makers and 50,000 retailers on its marketplace. Plus it has sold over 15 million products. This year, Faire expanded to include international makers across 39 countries.
“Boutiques are a vital part of the character of communities across the country. Their focus on curation and human interaction is why people delight in stopping by their local grocer, hearing an author speak at their community bookstore, or discovering a wonderful memento in a small shop on their vacation,” wrote Rhodes in a blog post. “Raising money is sometimes mistaken for success. We view this fundraise as an important milestone for the future of retail. Our success will look like more diversity in local communities — special and unique downtowns where people can discover high-quality items sold in stores owned by their neighbors.”
With this round of funding, Faire is going to expand into new markets, improve its marketplace, and build tools to free up customers to focus on their mission.
