The Black Tux Raises $10 Million For Its Deluxe Suit Rental Business

It’s true. Everybody’s crazy about a sharp-dressed man.

A little less than a year after raising $2.6 million in a seed round, the entrepreneurs behind the men’s formalwear rental business, The Black Tux have raised an additional $10 million from a group of its previous investors led by First Round Capital. As a result First Round’s Josh Kopelman is taking a seat on the company’s board joining co-founders Andrew Blackmon and Patrick Coyne.

Additional investors in the round include previous investors Menlo Ventures and Raine Group, an investment fund associated with talent agency William Morris Endeavor. “Everybody has re-upped,” says Blackmon.

Since its launch in 2013, The Black Tux has been on something of a tear as it attempts to graba  bigger slice of the roughly $1.2 billion men’s formalwear rental market. The company opened a showroom in Santa Monica and has since expanded its line of products to include more casual suits to its formalwear stable.

Money from its latest round will be used to expand the company’s inventory of quality tuxedos and suits — all designed in-house.

Beyond its line of basic tuxes, The Black Tux will look to expand with a line of velvet tuxes in the fall along with navy suits and a new shawl-collar tux. That’s in addition to its existing line of tuxedos and a grey suit.

The company was mum on its revenues, but it’s got a waiting list of 20,000 to 30,000 for its inventory, according to Blackmon.

Unlike other e-commerce brands, which are beginning to focus more on their offline retail experience, for now The Black Tux is exclusively looking at expanding its physical footprint on the logistics side of its operations, according to Coyne.

While the company has very targeted plans for its current round of financing, looking ahead, there are bigger aspirations for where The Black Tux can take men’s formal wear.

“The goal is to be Rent The Runway for [our own brand],” says Coyne. That could include collaborations with other brands and expanding its own line of tailored, branded clothes to include a slew of formal wear options.

I’m envisioning a future where I never have to own another suit again (and to me that’s kind of a beautiful world).

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