Glossier secures $80 million in funding ahead of physical relaunch

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jul 7, 2021

Digital-first direct-to-consumer beauty brand Glossier Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has raised $80 million in a Series E funding round led by Lone Pine Capital, an injection of capital that reportedly brings the company’s total valuation up to $1.8 billion.

 
According to New York-based Glossier, the company will use the funds to continue to scale both its online and offline channels globally. The funding round comes on the heels of the company’s announcement last month that it will be relaunching its brick-and-mortar operations with the opening of three new permanent stores in Seattle, Los Angeles and London later this year.
 
Founded as a digitally native business in 2014, Glossier opened its first permanent physical location in New York in 2018 and quickly became known for its intensely experiential retail spaces. According to the company, its two permanent flagships and five temporary stores were visited by more than 1 million people in 2019. However, due to the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic, the brand was ultimately forced to permanently close these locations last year.

The three new store openings represent the first step in renewed expansion strategy that the company said will focus on taking an “e-commerce-first approach to entering new international markets,” but which also involves “dozens of new stores planned for the United States and globally in the coming years.”
 
“When Glossier launched as a digitally native beauty company, we were an anomaly in our industry, which has been slow to innovate beyond brick and mortar,” said Emily Weiss, founder and CEO of Glossier, in a release. “Now, nearly seven years into Glossier’s journey, our strategy and the expectations of beauty consumers everywhere are aligned: beauty discovery increasingly begins online as people look for inspiration from friends and strangers alike, and customers want to move fluidly between immersive and personalized e-commerce and retail experiences. This is the future we’ve always been building for.”
 
Offering 39 products across the skincare, makeup, body and fragrance categories, Glossier boasts more than 5 million customers around the world. The brand is particularly popular with Gen Z and Millennials, with two out of every five U.S. women between the ages of 18 and 34 saying that they have heard of it, according to the company’s own research.
 
“The community that’s formed around Glossier’s approach to beauty, one that champions individual freedom and choice, has made Glossier’s direct relationship with its customers all the more powerful,” commented Kelly Granat, portfolio manager at Lone Pine Capital. “This is already an iconic and era-defining beauty company, and we’re excited to play a role in bringing Glossier experiences and products to people everywhere.”
 
As well as Lone Pine, Glossier’s latest funding round also included the participation of existing investors Forerunner Ventures, Index Ventures, IVP, Sequoia Capital, and Thrive Capital.