Rent the Runway is an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

platform that allows users to rent, subscribe, or buy designer apparel and accessories. It was founded by Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, who launched the company in November 2009.

History

In 2007, Hyman and Fleiss met as sectionmates at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. They regularly met up to discuss entrepreneurial ideas, one of which was Rent the Runway.Black, Tiffany
“Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss, Founders of Rent the Runway”
''Inc Magazine'', July 19, 2010 After seeing her sister overspend on an expensive new dress for a wedding, Hyman had the idea of offering dress rentals for women for special events. Long term, her plan was to offer women unlimited access to a designer closet they could rent from on-demand. Early on, Hyman and Fleiss pitched the idea to designer

Diane von Fürstenberg Diane von Fürstenberg (born Diane Simone Michele Halfin, 31 December 1946) is a Belgian fashion designer best known for her wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence in 1969 when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as ...

as a rental service for her brand's website. She was initially uninterested, and suggested that instead they create their own multi-brand retail site. Hyman and Fleiss took her advice, and Fürstenberg signed on as one of the company's first designer partners. A November 2009 article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' helped bring publicity to the company shortly after its launch. In 2016, the company began offering everyday clothing through a subscription model. The company has received over $400 million in

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

from investors including

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, TCV,

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Highland Capital Partners Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco. Highland has raised over $4 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 280 companies, with 47 IPOs and 134 Acqui ...

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, and T. Rowe Capital.Rao, Lena
"AmEx Backs The Netflix For Designer Clothes, Rent The Runway"
"TechCrunch", March 11, 2013 In 2015, the company suffered negative press after the departure of several executives such as CTO Camille Fournier and Linda Honan (now of

BBDO BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, B ...

).Roberts, Daniel
"Exclusive: What’s behind the exodus from Rent the Runway?"
"Fortune", Nov 17, 2015Kosoff, Maya
"Why executives are fleeing $500 million startup Rent the Runway"
"Business Insider", November 17, 2015 However, it was reported to have a positive bounce back by the end of 2016 with a Series E venture investment from

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...

and the launch of new physical retail shops.O'Connor, Clare
"Rent The Runway Raises $60M In Funding As It Rolls Out Retail Stores"
Forbes", December 28, 2016 In 2017, Fleiss left the company to co-found Jetblack, a concierge shopping service. Fleiss remained on the board and Hyman remained as CEO. In March 2019, Rent the Runway received a new round of financing that increased its valuation to the

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

level of $1 billion.

Business model

The company offers clothes from over 700 designers, in sizes ranging from 00 to 22. In addition to garments for events, the company also rents everyday clothing, children's clothing, ski apparel, home décor, and accessories, including jewelry and handbags. The company offers several subscription plans at varying prices, that can be customized. According to the company, as of 2019 subscriptions account for 75% of its business. Customers can also rent clothes for a 4- or 8-day period without signing up for a subscription as part of the company's Reserve program. Each rental includes a back-up size at no additional cost to ensure it fits. Customers can get a second style for an additional fee. Rental prices include the dry cleaning and care of the garments. In 2021, the company began allowing anyone to buy items secondhand from its site without a membership. Subscribers have had the option to buy items they rented since 2016. Rent the Runway had physical locations in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

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, and

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, where customers could work with a personal stylist, and either take items directly with them or book dresses and accessories for future events. In August 2020, the company announced it would be closing all five of its retail locations, in order to focus on digital subscriptions, and would be adding more drop box locations. According to the company, it has the biggest

dry cleaning Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Dry cleaning still involves liquid, but clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), known i ...

operation in the United States and possibly the world, processing 2,000 items per hour (as of 2018). The company has distribution warehouses in

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. In September 2019, Rent the Runway experienced an 11-day operational glitch and temporarily stopped accepting new customers. The company resumed regular operations on October 15, 2019, after implementing system upgrades.

Awards and honors

Rent the Runway was named on

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's Disruptor 50 list in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019. The company was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2019. In 2018, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' recognized RTR Unlimited as a World Changing Idea; in 2014 the New York State Society for Human Resource Management honored Rent the Runway as one of the best companies to work for in New York State; and in 2010, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine named it one of the 50 best websites of the year. In 2019, ''

'' recognized Hyman as one of their 100 Most Influential People. The firm and Hyman were named one of the 12 Most Disruptive Names in Business in 2013 by Forbes, and Hyman was included on Fortune’s Trailblazers list of individuals changing the face of business in 2013. Both Hyman and co-founder Fleiss have been named to Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30,” Fortune’s “40 Under 40,” Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology,” Fashion Group International’s 14th annual Rising Stars in Retail,

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' "Women Entrepreneurs to Watch", and ''

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'' 2016 Upstart 100 Class of Creatives.

References

{{reflist Online retailers of the United States American companies established in 2009 Retail companies established in 2009 Internet properties established in 2009 Dry cleaning Clothing rental companies Subscription services 2021 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Nasdaq Publicly traded companies based in New York City