Jet Has Raised a Huge New Pile of Money

Jet.com, an ambitious e-commerce startup trying to take on Amazon, has raised $350 million in new funding led by Fidelity, according to Jet. The company has also received verbal commitments for another $150 million, which would bring the round’s total size to $500 million.

This confirms Coins2Day’s report earlier this month about the funding that said the round valued Jet at $1 billion “pre-money,” or excluding the funding.

Thanks to the billion-dollar valuation, Jet’s $130 million in convertible financing from February will become Series B equity. That brings the total size of the round to $630 million.

Jet has previously raised $220 million in equity and debt (including the previously mentioned $130 million) from a long list of investors: Bain Capital Ventures, Accel Partners, Coatue Management, General Catalyst Partners, Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, MentorTech Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Temasek, and Thrive Capital.

Marc Lore, who sold his previous e-commerce company to Amazon, founded Jet, which he premiered in July. The company initially charged a $50 annual membership fee, but it eventually dropped that requirement in October.

Jet’s gross merchandize volume (GMV), or total sales, for September hit $20 million, Coins2Day previously reported. The company beat its October GMV target of $30.5 million by 11%, selling $33.2 million worth of items. In addition, the number of new Jet shoppers grew 25% in October while the number of repeat buyers increased 62%.

The company’s outsized ambitions—taking on Amazon (AMZN)—and giant pile of venture capital funding have earned it plenty of skeptics. Earlier this month the Wall Street Journalreported that the company was facing a cash crunch because of its heavy spending on marketing. Lore said, in a statement, “The last four months have been incredible and we’re thrilled with the response we’ve seen from both our members and retail partners.”