LONDON — Farfetch.com, an online market place for independent, high-end fashion boutiques world wide, has raised $18 million in its latest round of investment from venture capital firms Index Ventures, eVenture Capital Partners, and its existing investors, Advent Capital Partners.
Farfetch, which launched in 2008, showcases men’s and women’s clothing from some 200 boutiques including B Store and Polyanna in the U.K., American Rag, and Fred Segal Man in the U.S. and L’Eclaireur in Paris. Customers pay for purchases through Farfetch, which passes them on to the boutique and takes a percentage of each sale.
Following the investment, the Web site’s founder and chief executive Jose Neves now plans to “expand and deepen” Farfetch’s presence in its existing markets in Europe and North America, the firm said, to enter new markets and further its presence in markets such as Brazil. To expand the company’s presence in the U.S., Neves will open an office in New York during the second half of 2012 and has hired Dara Gary, who was formerly sales director at BCBG MaxAzria, as business development director to develop Farfetch’s U.S. business.
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Farfetch currently has an office in Los Angeles, and it partners with 34 boutiques in the U.S., a number it hopes to expand. In addition, Robin Klein, venture partner at Index Ventures, has been appointed to Farfetch’s board of directors. Klein joins Frederic Court, general partner at Advent Venture Partners, on the board. Advent invested $6 million in the business in 2010.
According to Farfetch, the site’s sales are growing at a rate of 204 percent each year, and the site now counts 56,000 customers across 100 countries. The site has 110 boutique partners in Europe and the U.S. and 60 partners in Brazil, where it operates a sister site, farfetch.com.br.
Neves said of the investment: “Farfetch.com is growing extremely fast…We felt it was the right time to scale up our team and operations and seize some fantastic opportunities we have in our core business in Europe and beyond in the U.S., Brazil and Asia.”
Klein added: “We strongly believe that the model of Farfetch.com is one that will continue to grow and expand globally and attract a very engaged and loyal base of fashion connoisseurs across markets,” he stated.