Faire Wholesale—which connects 300,000 retailers with 40,000 brands in categories ranging from home décor and food products to apparel and jewelry—says it will use $400 million in new funding to build its staff, improve its website features, and expand internationally.
When Faire Wholesale Inc. launched in 2017 as a wholesale B2B marketplace, its founders figured they would grow in a niche catering to independent brands and retailers.
Max Rhodes, CEO, Faire Wholesale Inc.
They were right. Faire now caters to 300,000 independent merchants and 40,000 brands that buy and sell merchandise ranging from home décor and food products to apparel, jewelry, and pet supplies.
Founded by veterans of the digital payment technology and services company Square Inc., Faire expects far more growth ahead. Flush with its latest round of funding at $400 million, it plans to invest in more “top talent” personnel, online commerce tools, and expansion within and beyond its existing markets in Europe and the United States. But its business strategy remains the same: to help more independent merchants compete against the retail industry’s dominant retailers.
“With our global reach, Faire is providing an even greater opportunity for the independent retail community to compete against big-box giants,” says CEO Max Rhodes. Rhodes co-founded Faire with chief technology officer Marcelo Cortes, chief operating officer Jeff Kolovson, and chief data officer Daniele Perito.
“By removing the traditional growth hurdles our customers face, we have enabled more opportunities, more connections, and more possibilities for the entrepreneurs who use the platform,” Rhodes says. “Our ability to deliver local and cross-border demand to brands—and, in turn, offer retailers access to a more expansive, data-driven selection—is how Faire will define the future of retail.”
A workforce doubled to 700
Faire says it has more than doubled its number of employees to about 700 located across 10 global offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Brazil in the past year. The company has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Waterloo, Ontario.
Faire is “building a business that is truly in balance with all of its stakeholders, allowing emerging brands and independent retailers to do what they do best—create and sell products,” says Anouk Dey, a partner at Durable Capital Partners LP, one of Faire’s financial backers. “With their continued investment in the U.K., Europe, and beyond, we believe that Faire will transform the global wholesale market.”
In addition to Durable Capital, investors in Faire include Baillie Gifford, D1 Capital Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, Forerunner Ventures, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Wellington Management, and Y Combinator.
Faire says it has raised a total of $1 billion in venture funding, giving it a valuation of $12.4 billion.
Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week, covering technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact editor Paul Demery at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @pdemery.
Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when new Digital Commerce 360 B2B News content is published.