Fashionista Kim Kardashian and business partner Brian Lee started ShoeDazzle.com two years ago and on Friday they announced a $40 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz and already existing investors Polaris Venture Partners and LightSpeed Venture Partners.
ShoeDazzle isn’t your typical e-commerce website, instead the site sends out their users a monthly selection of shoes, handbags and jewelry branded with the ShoeDazzle name in a box with a ribbon, users each month decide if they want to receive the item or opt out for any given month, if a user doesn’t choose an item and they haven’t opted out for that month they are charged $39.95, if they return the item after that point they are credited on their online account with the full monthly subscription amount.
The service has been so successful that ShoeDazzle now claims three million subscribers and various upstarts have begun to mimic their program protocols.
With the cash infusion the company plans to expand into international markets, starting with the U.K. in several months and then into Asia and South America.
John O’Farrell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz has joined the ShoeDazzle board as part of their deal. [via AllThingsD ]
