Popular flash sales site Gilt Groupe announced today that it has raised another $138 million in funding and is now reportedly valued at around $1 billion.
The round exceeds earlier reports that pegged the New York City company’s new funding between $80 and $100 million. Japanese telecom Softbank invested $62.5 million, while separately contributing enough funding to Gilt Groupe Japan to take a 50 percent stake in the company. The remaining $75.5 million came from previous investors General Atlantic and Matrix Partners, as well as new backers Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, Pinnacle Ventures, TriplePoint Capital, and Eastward Capital.
Gilt Groupe says it now has more than 3.5 million users. It’s pretty obvious by now that there’s a lot of cash flowing into online shopping (deals sites Groupon and LivingSocial have both raised big new rounds), but Gilt Groupe made its name by focusing on luxury products and services, something that was carried over when it expanded beyond flash sales, for example into Groupon-like deals at Gilt City.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, chief executive Kevin Ryan said the company will bring in $500 million in revenue for the year ending in June. And while he said there are no specific plans to go public, this will probably be Gilt Groupe’s final round of funding.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More