Heyday raises $70M to grow marketplace brands

Dive Brief:

Heyday, a platform that supports digital-native, marketplace brands, raised $70 million in Series B equity financing, the company announced in an emailed press release on Thursday. The round comes less than six months after the startup raised $175 million in Series A funding.
The company said it has surpassed $100 million in revenue, employs a team of over 100 employees and expanded to more than a dozen markets worldwide.
General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures and Arbor Ventures participated in the Series B funding round. Mark Crane, partner at General Catalyst, will also join Heyday's board, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

In its bid to help scale marketplace-native brands, Heyday has brought on industry veterans with experience at established brands and retailers to guide its company into the next phase.

The company has hired Tapan Shah, formerly of Amazon, to serve as its head of technology, and Karan Gandhi, who worked at Boxed and Amazon, as head of operations. Brandless founder Tina Sharkey was also added to the board "to shape the trajectory of Heyday and provide strategic counsel, global brand and product innovation experience to support the company's rapid scale."

With more consumers shopping online during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital sales have spiked for many, including Amazon, which saw a jump in online store sales and net product sales in Q1. Consumer preferences toward the convenience of marketplaces like Amazon are part of the reason Heyday is focusing on growing digital brands that started on a marketplace — and it's not the only one doing so. Charming Charlie founder Charlie Chanaratsopon, through startup Boosted Commerce, is also on the hunt for marketplace-grown brands to acquire and scale.

"Amazon developed the world's largest entrepreneur-creation machine, with 50% of its sales made by entrepreneurs who are building brands that delight consumers every day," Sebastian Rymarz, Heyday co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "Our mission is to help those e-commerce entrepreneurs reach new heights."

Other companies are jumping into the game as well to help digital brands grow beyond their startup days. Holding companies and conglomerates are cropping up across the industry, with companies like Win Brands Group building out a portfolio of promising DTC brands to scale.

Meanwhile, other businesses are tackling growth through exposure. The Fascination, an online marketplace that showcases emerging DTC brands in one place, raised $1 million in seed funding last week to keep growing its platform. And earlier this month, Neighborhood Goods unveiled a brick-and-mortar concept called The Marketplace, which features various CPG brands in a physical format.