Kitchener-Waterloo and San Francisco-based retail startup Faire has secured $260 million USD in Series F financing, as it looks to build on a year of significant growth.
Faire said the fresh capital gives it a valuation of $7 billion USD, nearly triple the firm’s valuation last October.
The round was led by Sequoia Capital. All of Faire’s existing investors also participated, plus two new investors in Baillie Gifford and Wellington Management. Faire’s list of previous investors includes Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Y Combinator, DST Global, Dragoneer, D1 Capital Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners. The raise brings Faire’s total funding to date to nearly $700 million.
“This new round of funding will also enable us to broaden our vision.”
-Max Rhodes, Faire’s CEO
Faire’s Series F raise comes just over seven months after it secured $170 million USD in Series E capital at a valuation of $2.5 billion. It also follows a year of significant growth and expansion for the company, marked by the early success of its push into Europe and driven, in part, by a growing need for retailers to connect with brands during disruptions caused by COVID-19.
“This latest round is validation that our vision of a more democratized future for retail is resonating with many of the best investors in the world,” wrote Max Rhodes, Faire’s co-founder and CEO, in a blog post announcing the raise. “This new round of funding will also enable us to broaden our vision.”
Faire serves over 200,000 retailers in North America and Europe, connecting them with 20,000 brands from more than 80 countries. The Series F round comes weeks after Faire’s expansion into the European market.
The retail tech company currently operates in some of Europe’s largest markets, including the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Fresh funding in hand, Faire aims to expand across all of continental Europe in the coming months.
Rhodes said the company plans to use the new capital to continue expanding its presence across Europe and in categories like food and apparel, where Faire has seen sales grow twice as fast as our overall business, and now account for over a third of all products sold on its platform.
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The CEO added that Faire also plans to “find new ways to serve [its] existing communities as they continue to navigate the post-pandemic shift to an omnichannel retail landscape.”
Faire was founded in 2017 by a group of Square alumni, including Rhodes, Marcelo Cortes, Jeff Kolovson, and Daniele Perito. It offers an online wholesale marketplace for brands and retailers. The company has deep roots in Canada, with a second headquarters in Kitchener-Waterloo in addition to San Francisco. The retail tech firm also has locations in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Toronto, London, and São Paulo.
Last February, Faire opened its Canadian headquarters in Kitchener-Waterloo. Although Faire previously had a presence in the region, the space marked its first official headquarters in Canada.
According to Faire, over the past year, the company has “more than tripled its business,” selling over 75 million products and seeing 300 percent year-over-year volume growth through its platform. Some of this growth can be attributed to its European expansion.
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Faire said that “within the first 30 days of launching the platform in each respective market,” its European growth outpaced its United States growth by 230 percent. The firm added that its European volume currently annualizes to about $50 million, “a scale that took nearly two years to reach in the US.”
“Even now, with Faire reaching $1B in annual volume in just four years, we believe the size of this [wholesale] market is vastly underestimated,” wrote Rhodes. “The most exciting opportunities in this space are still ahead of us.”
Ravi Gupta, partner at Sequoia, said the whole market is “in the midst of a multi-decade digital transformation,” adding that “the world-class team at Faire is leading the way in digitizing the multi trillion-dollar global wholesale market.
Faire currently has about 500 employees, and plans to double its headcount over the next year. The startup intends to hire dozens of employees in Europe and open a London office.
Photo of CTO and co-founder Marcelo Cortes, courtesy of Faire