Fab 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 managem ...

company founded in 2010. Once estimated at a worth of over $1 billion, in March 2015, the digital and ecommerce assets of Fab were acquired by

PCH International PCH is a global custom design manufacturing company that works with companies to design, engineer, develop, manufacture, pack out, fulfill and distribute products as well as manage supply chains. The company was founded in Ireland in 1996 by ent ...

for an undisclosed sum and has since been relaunched as a new entity with no interaction from the original founders. It grew from 175,000 members in June 2011, to over 10 million as of December 2012. As of April 30, 2013, Fab disclosed it received 6 million unique visitors per month and had sold over 7 million products since launch. Fab was originally headquartered in Manhattan and operated a warehouse in

Keasbey, New Jersey Keasbey is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community located within Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, Woodbridge Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey. It is located on the western outskirts of Perth ...

. The company once had office locations in Pune (India), and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

History

Fab was founded in February 2010 by

Jason Goldberg Jason Goldberg (born 1972) is an American film and television producer. Goldberg is the producer of the films ''Guess Who'' and '' The Butterfly Effect'' and executive producer of the shows ''Beauty and the Geek'' and ''Punk'd''. He often work ...

(formerly of XING AG and Jobster) and chief designer

Bradford Shellhammer Bradford Shane Shellhammer (born 1976) is an American entrepreneur and designer who co-founded the e-commerce companies Fab and Bezar. Shellhammer was an admissions counselor at Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Museum and part-time ...

. The pair had previously founded Fabulis which was a social network for gay men and their friends before pivoting on June 9, 2011 into Fab, with its model of daily design inspirations and sales. In November 2011, five months after re-launching, Fab reached 1 million members. The company reached this number faster than

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Groupon Groupon is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching soon af ...

. In September 2012, Fab removed the membership requirements to browse the site. In December 2012, Fab passed 10 million members, up from 7.5 million members in September. Fab also announced it had sold more than 4.3 million products since its launch, averaging 5.4 products sold per minute. In July 2013, Fab eliminated 100 positions at its

office as a profit-building measure. Fab laid off 101 more staff, primarily at its

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

office in October 2013, further reducing their workforce by 19 percent. On September, 2014, Fab launched a sister website Hem, a design site offering customized furniture designs. In 2014, Bradford Shellhammer left his role as chief design officer to create his own curated design marketplace, Bezar.

Acquisitions

Fab made its first acquisition in January 2012 when it purchased independent fashion retailer FashionStake. In February 2012, Fab purchased German flash sales website Casacanda, founded by Roman Kirsch in 2011. Four months later the company acquired UK-based online design retailer Llustre. In June 2014, Fab acquired Finnish e-retailer One Nordic Furniture for an undisclosed sum paid in cash and stock.Juhana Rossi
"Fab Acquires One Nordic Furniture,"
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', June 18, 2014.

Social commerce

Fab promoted

social commerce Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce that involves social media and online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist online buying and selling of products and services. More succinctly, social commerce ...

. The company maintained an Inspiration Wall where members could upload and share design inspirations. In December 2011, Fab introduced its “Live Feed”, which enables users to share what they are buying, liking, and tweeting on Fab.com. In January 2012, Fab was among Facebook's initial partners as part of its integration of social tools through the Facebook Timeline. The company also employed a mobile first strategy with its digital products, with an emphasis on iPad and iPhone, and released a custom mobile app in October 2012.

Funding

Less than two months after launching in June 2011 Fab secured an $8 million funding round led by

Menlo Ventures Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded as one of the earliest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley in 1976 and provides technology ...

with existing investors including

First Round Capital First Round is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Founded by Josh Kopelman Joshua Kopelman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist. Kopelman is best ...

, Baroda Ventures, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Founder and CEO

SoftTech VC Uncork Capital (formerly known as SoftTech VC) is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeff Clavier. Considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley, it has invested in companies such as ...

, SV Angel,

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a ...

Guy Oseary Guy Harley Oseary ( he, גיא עוזרי; born October 3, 1972) is an Israeli-American talent manager and writer. His clients include Madonna, U2 and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Biography Guy Oseary was born on October 3, 1972, in Jerusale ...

and

A-Grade Investments A-Grade Investments is a venture capital firm founded in 2010 by actor Ashton Kutcher, entertainment manager Guy Oseary, and billionaire investor Ron Burkle to invest in technology start-up companies. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, ...

, and Zelkova Ventures also participating. In December 2011, Fab.com raised a $40 million round of funding led by investment firm

Andreessen Horowitz Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z, legal name AH Capital Management, LLC) is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Andreessen H ...

, bringing its total funding to over $51 million. Fab's largest round of funding, $105 million, occurred shortly after its 1-year anniversary in July 2012. The Series C round was led by Atomico with the following previous investors also participating:

, Baroda Ventures, ru-Net Technology Partners (RTP), Pinnacle Ventures, Izurium Capital, Docomo Capital, and

Mayfield Fund Mayfield, also known as Mayfield Fund, is a US-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage to growth-stage investments in enterprise and consumer technology companies. Founded in 1969 and based in Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ...

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.fab.com Internet properties established in 2010 Online marketplaces of Germany 2010 establishments in Germany