Glossier, the NYC-based direct-to-consumer beauty business, raised a $100m round of funding, vaulting the company’s valuation to $1.2B.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the female-founded company has more than tripled in value since last year.
Building a billion-dollar blog… before work
Emily Weiss, a former teen model who also acted in The Hills, launched a beauty blog called “Into the Gloss” in 2010.
Writing posts between 4 am and 8 am (before going to work at her full-time job at Vogue), Weiss amassed an audience of 10m page views a month just after a year. With several big cosmetics brands lined up for sponsorships, Weiss soon quit her day job to focus on the beauty blog.
As the blog continued to grow, Weiss decided the company shouldn’t just write about improving the beauty industry but should actually build it with new products. Weiss began looking for investors, and in 2014, after several rejections, she scored $2m in seed funding.
A beautiful business model
Just 5 years later, Glossier has raised enough money — $186.4m — to make a beautician blush. Although the company moved away from its blog-based beginnings, Glossier continued to build up its customer base on platforms like Instagram.
Last year, Glossier added 1m new customers and did $100m in revenue. The company has 2 permanent stores (in NYC and LA) and plans to open 5 more temporary stores later this year.