Home and cooking website Brit + Co has received a new round of funding led by Verizon Ventures, the venture arm of telecommunications giant Verizon.
Founded by former Apple and Google employee Brit Morin, Brit + Co is a hybrid of online content and e-commerce. It features DIY tips, projects, and recipes in addition selling merchandise like jewelry and home decor items. Brit & Co’s audience is mostly women in their 20s and 30s. Morin herself has been dubbed as “Silicon Valley’s would-be Martha Stewart.”
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Brit + Co makes money by selling craft kits, through online advertising, and charging for online classes. In fact, in the past year, Brit + Co started selling its DIY kits in stores of retail giant Target.
The company also offers more than 100 paid online classes ranging from calligraphy to online coding to how to start a business. Morin declined to reveal exact revenue numbers for the company, but said that revenue is “well in the eight figures.” She projects that sales will increase 300% in 2017.
In this latest funding round, Brit + Co raised $15 million, bringing its total funding to $45 million. Past investors include DMGT, Intel Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Brit + Co also announced that former Target chief marketing officer and former Uber President, Jeff Jones, would become an advisor.
The funding comes weeks after competitor and DIY video tutorial site Craftsy was acquired by NBC Universal for a reported $230 million in cash, according to tech news site Recode. Brit + Co also faces competition from Darby Smart, another venture-backed video tutorial site aimed at the millennial generation, along with Gwyneth Paltrow’s site Goop, and Martha Stewart’s online site.
Morin said in an interview that NBC’s latest move was great sign about the direction of her business and the market in general. “You’re starting to see media companies embrace new forms of revenue,” she said.
