Flash Sales Site Ideeli Raises $41 Million

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Flash sales site Ideeli, which was founded in 2007, has raised $41 million in Series C funding led by Next World Capital with Cue Ball Capital, StarVest Partners, Constellation Growth Capital and Kodiak Venture Partner participating in the round. This bring’s Ideeli’s total funding to nearly $70 million

With over 4 million members, ideeli offers 50 to 70 percent discounts on clothing and accessories over a several day period. The sales are private, available only to members, with upcoming sales from brands announced via emails. Products include clothing for men, women and children as well as jewelry, handbags and home accessories.

Ideeli also recently expanded into travel and daily deals, similar to Gilt Groupe’s Gilt City deals. Ideeli says that the new financing will be used for category expansions, partnerships, technology enhancements, marketing campaigns, attracting talent and enhancing the Ideeli member experience.

The flash sales space has been showing both big venture raises of late. One of the leaders in the space, Gilt Groupe, has been raising huge amounts of money, growing its user base at a rapid pace and turning a strong profit. In December, Gilt raised another $15 million, bringing the company’s total funding to nearly $100 million. At one point Gilt was valued at $400 million and an IPO could be in the near future.

One Kings Lane, which focuses on using the flash sales model for home accessories and furniture, has also recently raised a large round. And Ideeli competitor HauteLook (which also has 4 million members) was just acquired by Nordstrom for $270 million.

Company: ideeli
Website: ideeli.com
Launch Date: 2007
Funding: $94.8M

ideeli is a leading online retail site dedicated to delivering a unique, exciting daily shopping experience with a curated selection of offerings across the apparel, accessories, home, shoes, kids, travel and lifestyle categories. Each limited-time sale event offers privileged prices on the best brands and experiences. Most sale events start at noon ET and last only 40 hours.

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