Rent the Runway, which is revolutionizing fashion by allowing millions of women to rent designer apparel and accessories, announced a $60 million round of Series D funding led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, and Advance Publications, Inc., the parent company of Condé Nast. Additionally, TCV General Partner Daniel O’Keefe will be joining Rent the Runway’s board. This latest round brings total investment in the company to $116 million and will be used to accelerate the company’s already impressive growth.
“Rent the Runway is capping off an amazing 2014. We unveiled our new subscription service, Unlimited, which puts a woman’s closet on rotation; we opened new retail stores in New York and Washington, D.C.; and we doubled our customer base,” Jennifer Hyman, Rent the Runway CEO and co-founder, said. “Our company is at the forefront of a global movement towards the access economy, and we’re confident that partnering with TCV, the firm that has backed both Netflix and Spotify, will help us achieve our goal of inspiring every woman in the United States to have a subscription to fashion.”
Over the past few years, Rent the Runway has built an experienced and powerful executive team that is 80% women, including the key hire of Beth Kaplan as President and COO, who was formerly the President of General Nutrition Centers and took GNC public in 2011. “This new investment combined with our strong leadership team will give us everything we need to take our company to the next stage of growth,” Beth Kaplan added.
Rent the Runway plans to use the funding to invest in introducing millions more women to the brand, hiring engineering talent that will help further deliver on the company’s customer experience, opening a network of retail locations across 15 key markets, and establishing the company’s first West Coast distribution center.
“We are tremendously excited about the incredible momentum Rent the Runway is experiencing and believe that, with this investment, we can further accelerate the company’s growth,” said Daniel O’Keefe, General Partner at TCV. “Rent the Runway has given a whole new generation of women access to high-end fashion, and they are just getting started. We look forward to helping the company grow as it continues to create new ways to bring luxury experiences to customers everywhere.”
About Rent the Runway
Rent the Runway is revolutionizing fashion by allowing millions of women to rent designer apparel and accessories. The company focuses on convenience and a top-notch customer experience on all of its platforms, including online, mobile, and retail locations inNew York City, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. With styles from more than 270 top designers, Rent the Runway serves as a powerful marketing channel for the fashion industry, introducing a new generation of women to brands that they had limited access to before.
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