Retail marketplace Faire has raised a $133 million CAD ($100 million USD) in a Series C round with YC Continuity and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Lightspeed Venture Partners led a $40 million USD Series B in the company “a few months ago,” according to a blog post from Lightspeed’s Alex Taussig, while Y Combinator approached Faire to lead a $80 million CAD ($60 million USD) round, according to a blog post from founder and CEO Max Rhodes.
Faire’s investors now include DST and Founders Fund, as well as existing investors Sequoia Capital, Forerunner Ventures, and Khosla Ventures. Formerly known as Indigo Fair, Faire allows independent retailers to find new products from niche creators. The company raised a $16 million CAD ($12 million USD) round led by Khosla and Forerunner in February 2018.
The company currently serves over 15,000 retailers and nearly 2,000 brands. Faire is on track to surpass $100 million in sales, and has grown its headcount from eight to 61 from its San Francisco and Kitchener-based offices this year.
“We’ve helped retailers overcome the burden of inventory risk by bringing a data-driven approach to wholesale purchasing, increasing their sell-through rates by 75 percent over the course of the year,” Rhodes writes. He credited much of the company’s growth to Elevate, its recently-launched wholesale portal allowing brands to invoice retailers, track their retailers’ ordering history, and view data analytics on their sales.
