Zulily daily deals for kids secures $43 million in funding
Zulily, one of the first daily deal sites targeted towards children and babies (as well as their parents who are paying for this stuff), has proven that there is room for kid-friendly discounts in this field.
The Seattle-based startup has raised $43 million in venture capital in its latest round of fundraising with the help of Meritech Capital Partners -- which also once boosted PopCap before it was sold off to Electronic Arts. That brings Zulily's total estimated valuation to $750 million. GeekWire reports that Zulily is aiming to earn more than $150 million in revenue this year.
Part of why Zulily has found success, in particular with moms as VentureBeat reports, is that discount sites like this can save parents a lot of time and money on better brands and products.
In case you're not familiar with Zulily, daily deals are available with savings up to 90 percent on the the "best brands at the lowest prices" on apparel, gear and other products for mothers, babies and kids.
Anything related to kids, whether it be retail or entertainment, is usually big business. Zulily is one of the first, at least on this scale, to find its niche in the daily deal spectrum. Although there are other daily deal sites, including the top dogs like Groupon and LivingSocial, that do offer some kid and family-friendly offers, Zulily is one of the leaders when it comes to these demographics.
A new report published this week by online marketing research firm Experian Hitwise noted that Zulily.com captured the highest market share of online flash sale visits at 16 percent, followed by Ideeli and LivingSocial Escapes.
Related:
- Groupon glosses over ‘unusual’ accounting with SEC
- Amazon injects $175m into LivingSocial, boosting arsenal to compete with Google-Groupon
- LivingSocial expands global reach with TicketMonster acquisition
- Foursquare takes on Yelp with public user review pages
- Google Wallet NFC payment program, Google Offers announced