Dive Brief:
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High-end fashion curating platform Farfetch has collected a $86 million Series E investment funding round led by DST Global, bringing its total investment so far to $195 million, the company said Wednesday.
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That values the company at a whopping $1 billion. The company says the funding will go in part toward omnichannel efforts, including adding boutiques in Japan and Australia and starting same-day delivery services.
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Farfetch, whose app and web platforms select high-end items from boutiques worldwide, says it will also use the funding to expand further internationally. Farfetch is already in operation in London, New York, Los Angeles, Porto, and Sao Paulo.
Dive Insight:
Farfetch’s $1 billion valuation would indeed have seemed farfetched not long ago, but tech companies like SnapChat and Uber have busted that barrier a while ago. The UK-based fashion curating platform is showing that Silicon Valley is not the only place that can attract big techie dollar amounts. Its challenge now, as it is with all these ambitious enterprises, is to keep moving, as Farfetch founder-CEO José Neves himself notes.
“The challenge now is to keep innovating and focus on establishing a long-lasting global brand,” Neves says.
