E-commerce site Lyst is announcing a major new backer Thursday, Groupe Arnault, the investment firm controlled by LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. The London-based company has received a new $40 million round of funding from Groupe Arnault, Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, DFJ, 14W and an unnamed New York hedge fund.
Lyst is among the many companies that aim to be an online shopping mall for fashion.
Not only does it partner with designers and brands, but Lyst also makes it easier for online shoppers to pay for items they buy from Saks Fifth Avenue, Harrods, Valentino, J. Crew, and Neiman Marcus. It has a universal online shopping cart that lets customers shop across different designers and stores, but pay for everything they buy at once in a single checkout.
Lyst is also trying to personalize the online buying experience by curating clothes and accessories based on trends or seasonal events such as “Denim for Spring,” or “J.Crew’s Timeless Classics.” Lyst makes money through affiliate fees collected with each sale.
Chris Morton, co-founder and CEO of Lyst, tells Coins2Day that the company generates hundreds of millions in sales from brands on its platform and that the company has tripled revenue year-over-year for the past three years. The company declined to disclose its valuation in this round, but Morton said that it included a triple digit percentage jump in valuation post-money.
When it comes to fashion, Lyst faces off against a number of e-commerce competitors including Net-A-Porter, which was just merged with Italian retailer Yoox. Online retailing giant Amazon is looking to further its presence in the fashion vertical as well.
In the future, Morton says that Lyst will expand internationally and build websites for individual countries. In fact, China is one of Lyst’s fastest growing markets.
He also said that his company will continue to push ahead on both the web and mobile devices. It’s a strategy that contrasts with competitors such as Groupe Arnault-backed Spring, which have taken a mobile-first approach. He emphasized that many shoppers still buy through the web, and therefore, it makes sense to engage on both platforms.
“We’re seeing a lot of traction with women who are using their laptops to shop at work and it makes sense to have a web presence,” he said.
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