Flash sales site Fab.com racks up $40M, now at 1.2M members

Fab.com, the flash sales site for design-oriented products, is seeing its pivot pay off in a big way.

The company, which initially started out as Fabulis, a social network for gay men, announced yesterday that it has raised $40 million in a second round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Additionally, Fab says it has grown by a 300,000 new members in the past two months, with a subscriber base of 1.2 million today. In its social network days, Fab struggled to reach more than 150,000 members.

The funding comes just six months after Fab.com launched, and the company says it will be used to “rapidly grow the business” throughout the next year. No big surprise there, but it’ll be interesting to see what else Fab can do to differentiate itself from its flash sales rivals like Ideeli. The company currently offers design-focused deals across categories like jewelry, artwork, and clothes for up to 70 percent off retail prices.

New York City-based Fab.com previously raised $8 million in its first round of funding after becoming profitable at just six weeks old. Existing investors include Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, SoftTech VC, Baroda Ventures, and Ashton Kutcher. Andreessen general partner Jeff Jordan will be joining Fab.com’s board.