Fashion e-retailer Lulus raises 120 million in venture capital funding

Venture capital firm IVP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have led a 120 million dollar investment round in fashion e-tailer Lulus.

Founded in 1996 by Debra Cannon and daughter Colleen Winter in California, Lulus is an online website and fashion brand that caters to shoppers in their 20s, focusing on fashionable, affordable clothing.

More than 85 percent of the website is Lulus-branded clothes, though it sells other brands like Free People. Lulus has also begun to sell its clothes in Nordstrom stores.

With the funding, Lulus plans to support growth initiatives like building out its East Coast fulfillment centre, entering new categories such as shoes, and increasing its headcount.

“Through the platform, Lulus gains another advantage. More than 85% of the brand’s online clothing is Lulus-branded. When the Lulus Instagram handle shares these items using the hashtag #LoveLulus, 1.3 million followers become increasingly loyal to the brand,” said Alizah Farooqi, Content and Marketing Associate at Gartner L2 in a blog post.

The California-based fashion brand began as a brick-and-mortar boutique, although has no short-term plans to enhance its physical network of stores, although the fashion company’s CEO doesn´t rule that out, revealing that “core outlets” are a possibility in the future.

Lulus also prides itself on being data-driven to help it more efficiently order clothes.