BeachMint raises $35m in funding

Venture-backed social commerce company, BeachMint, which curates member-only celebrity-fronted fashion and beauty sites has raised $35m in financing from leading venture capital firms, Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs, New World Ventures,

Millenium Technology Value Partners, and NALA.

This new funding round, which brings BeachMint's total financing to over $75m, will be used to further its global expansion, to bolster its existing brands, and to launch several new brands planned for 2012, which includes two more celebrity partnerships.

Launched in late 2010, by serial tech entrepreneurs, Josh Berman, Co-Founder MySpace and Diego Berdakin, BeachMint runs four sites: jewellery site JewelMint.com with actress Kate Bosworth and celebrity stylist Cher Coulter; StyleMint.com an exclusive T shirt and apparel line designed by Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen; BeautyMint.com a personalised skin care system by Jessica Simpson and celebrity aesthetician Nerida Joy; and the latest addition, ShoeMint.com with actress Rachel Bilson and stylist Nicole Chavez, in collaboration with shoemaker Steve Madden.

CEO Josh Berman said, "It's an amazing time to be a leading social commerce company. With these partners and funding, we'll continue to evolve our technology and expand our brands in order to offer our unique shopping experience in more markets globally and to build out our existing brands."

Accel's Sameer Gandhi added, "We've watched BeachMint's incredible growth over the past year and believe the company is uniquely positioned to continue innovating and evolving the customer experience online. From the exclusive consumer products and shopping sites, to the innovative marketing, content and social media, BeachMint has elevated the space of celebrity curation in order to deliver unparalleled value to customers."

Prior to this funding, BeachMint has raised previous financing rounds led by NEA, Trinity Ventures and Scale Ventures, with participation from Anthem Ventures and Lightbank.