Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Film Star Will Smith And Others Invest $53 Million In The Fancy

New York-based crowd-sourced shopping site The Fancy has raised $53 million (£36 million) from investors including film star Will Smith.

The funding was also raised from Ukrainian-born, US investor Len Blavatnik and credit card company American Express valuing the company at $600 million. Fancy.com currently takes about $3 million sales a month, according to Bloomberg.

The site describes itself as 'part store, blog, magazine and wish list' and allows customers to buy or mark products they 'fancy' and the most fancied products get promoted to the top of the site.

New products can find their way onto the site because potential shoppers post photographs of products they would like to buy. The Fancy takes 10 per cent of the sale.

The financing will be spent on expansion of the site. Edward Gilligan, the president of American Express, joined the board and will sit alongside Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and French luxury group Kering's chairman Francois-Henri Pinault.

The Fancy's founder Joe Einhorn has described the site as 'dimension of your personality,' said in an interview with Forbes magazine.

'Consumers are setting trends, communities are forming around objects, and then merchants or brands can come right in and sell directly to them. If it's a hot guy, he's wearing something you can buy. If it's a beautiful place. If it's a place you can book a trip to.'

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