Fab.com Worth $1,000,000,000?
Looks like a lot of people have been buying wacky stools and canine bow ties: TechCrunch reports that whimsy epicenter Fab.com is taking a new funding round that will put its "value" squarely at one billion dollars.
This is quite the jump for founders Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shelhammer (above), the unstoppable gay Übermenschen of ecommerce. Just last november, Fab was "valued" at $600 million, but sales have increased steadily from them, and glowing editorial profiles have never hurt anyone's bottom line.
Still, we hear the company, for all its buzz, bluster, adoring users, and boutique bath salts, might have trouble on its back end: I've been told small average order sizes and logistical costs (you gotta keep all that stuff in warehouses) are holding the company down. Way down. Fab is intermittently transparent regarding its monthly sales and user base, both of which are on the rise. But as far as big picture revenue and profit go, they're mum. And this is important stuff for a company—especially one with a billion dollar paper worth. [TechCrunch]