Retailer 'The Fancy' may raise new funding at a $1.2B valuation

Retail service The Fancy could be the latest startup to join the billion-dollar valuation club upon raising a new round of investment, reports Bloomberg.

The Fancy is an online retail service that presents a pinboard-style layout of quirky, interesting, outlandish, and gimmicky products, and people may then bookmark the things they like by clicking a “Fancy’d” button. Many of these items are available for sale, and it has enough high-end products with expensive price tags that the $10 shipping rate usually doesn’t apply. The startup also sells what it refers to as Fancy Boxes, a random mix of items listed on The Fancy that customers can subscribe to for $40 per month.

I’ve actually tried the Fancy Box subscriptions, and they are pretty hit-or-miss. I ended up canceling after realizing I’d accumulated nearly an entire storage bin’s worth of Fancy Box junk I hadn’t even opened. (So if anyone wants my bomb-shaped ice mold whiskey shot glasses or hamburger meat-shaping tool, they are more than welcome to it.) That said, it was fun to get a package in the mail once a month, and the service is obviously got the attention of investors, both seasoned and celebrity alike.

The Fancy’s last round, which closed back in July, came in at $53 million from credit card company American Express, billionaire investor Len Blavatnik, and actor Will Smith. The round pushed the startup’s valuation to an estimated $600 million. However, if the news of The Fancy raising a fresh round is true that valuation could more than double, as previously mentioned.

VentureBeat is reaching out to The Fancy for further details, and we will update this post with any new information.