Glossier, a direct-to-consumer beauty brand, has secured $52 million in Series C funding, bringing total venture capital to $86 million. Existing investors IVP and Index Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investors Thrive Capital, Forerunner Ventures and 14W. New investors Imaginary Ventures and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz also joined.
Founder and CEO Emily Weiss sent an email blast this morning to all Glossier subscribers with the headline “Business News (It’s Good),” explaining how the new cash infusion would be used for, “More of the same, really. Just keep building the beauty company of the future: the one you shape.”
Glossier prides itself on building unique personal relationships with every customer through a sense of community. The beauty brand started from Weiss’ personal blog Into The Gloss, which has two million monthly unique visitors and shares beauty tips and interviews with celebrities and fashion influencers. The brand has a huge presence on social media, especially Instagram, where users can view product prices by tapping on an image and interact with the brand.
Advertisement
“We know that our customers are driven by the excitement of finding a new beauty product that they love, through someone they trust,” Weiss said in a statement. “This breadth of human connection and celebration of personal choice is core to who we are, and something we want to further facilitate and develop through new digital products — and, indeed, across all of our customer touch points. We are building a people-first ecosystem, to help and to inspire.”
In 2017, Glossier expanded into Canada and the UK and entered two new product categories. The company also opened offices in London and Montreal after acquiring Dynamo, a Canadian tech agency. Customers can shop the full range of products directly through its web site and at the company’s New York showroom. Glossier currently ships to the U.S., Canada and the UK.
The 150-person company doesn’t disclose its revenue numbers, but Glossier tripled year-over-year revenue in 2017.