The deal industry—whose pending demise has been widely reported primarily because of Groupon—may have just gotten an adrenaline shot on par with the that Uma Thurman’s character received in Pulp Fiction. Zulily announced Thursday an $85 million Series D round led by Andreessen Horowitz, a sizable sum that is leading to whispers of a billion-dollar valuation.
Fortune broke the news on the funding round this afternoon, including the valuation figure (which neither the Seattle-based Zulily nor the VC firm confirmed).
The flash-sales site, which was founded in January 2010 and hosts 72-hour sales on children’s apparel and merchandise for moms, now has more than 10 million members. It was founded by two executives of Blue Nile a site that pioneered the sale of engagement rings and fine jewelry online in the U.S. market: Mark Vadon, the chairman and founder, and Darrell Cavens, the former senior vice president of marketing and technology.
Their accomplishment in the jewelry industry apparently wasn’t lost on the VC powerhouse that led the round, with Jeff Jordan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz who also wrote a blog post on the round , calling Zulily “one of the fastest growing businesses we’ve ever encountered. ”
He also credited Vadon and Cavens as “two dads who saw an amazing opportunity to fill a big underserved need, providing moms with the opportunity to buy boutique-quality apparel and household goods at mass-market price points. We believe Zulily has huge market potential and is well on their way to becoming an iconic e-commerce franchise.”
He also pointedly, it seems, called it an “e-commerce business” versus a deals business and noted that the firm had also backed Fab.com and ShoeDazzle.
In a press release, Zulily says that it will use the round to improve the member experience and that it just launched the Zulily app for iPad, available for free now in the App Store.
Fortune also reports that some of the money from the round will be used to provide liquidity to early shareholders (which ought to get the daily deal naysayers’ tongues wagging.)
- Teresa Novellino
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Entrepreneurs & Enterprises Editor – Upstart Business Journal
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After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter—general on purpose because besides the usual city hall and police articles, there was the chance to fly an F-18 with the Blue Angels and tag along with bounty hunters on a stakeout—all good preparation for covering entrepreneurs.