Farfetch

Farfetch is a British international fashion website that stocks products from 400 independent boutiques around the world. The website was founded in 2008 by the Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves with the headquarters based in London, and subsidiary offices based in New York, Los Angeles, Guimarães, Porto, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. Farfetch works on a commission based model with its partner boutiques, which see an average of 30 per cent of their sales driven by the website.

The company operates bespoke, local-language websites for international markets in English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Korean, German, Russian and Spanish. As of May 2015, Farfetch has over 600 global employees.

History

Farfetch was founded in 2008 by José Neves,[1] a Portuguese entrepreneur who has been involved in the world of fashion start-ups since the mid-1990s, when he launched the shoe design business SWEAR. In 2001 he created B Store, a fashion licensing and wholesale company selling a niche range of up-and-coming designer labels in a physical boutique store. During a trip to Paris Fashion Week in 2007, when Neves was wholesaling for his B Store brand, the idea for a virtual boutique market-place came into fruition.[2] A 2013 interview in The Daily Telegraph details the moment when Neves realised the need to give independent fashion boutiques an online retail presence: “Dozens of boutique owners had been through our doors and what they were saying was really sobering. Business was bad, they couldn’t rely on local custom any more but they didn’t have the experience to do e-tailing either. They had amazing taste levels but they were having to play it increasingly safe.”[3]

It was this reason that Neves decided to set up the Farfetch website, to enable small, independent boutiques to compete in the marketplace while retaining their ‘bricks and mortar’ stores and their own visual identity. A 2013 article in The Economist summarises this: “Farfetch emphasises its ‘bricks and mortar roots,” allowing independent retailers to “keep their identity, while boosting their position in the market.”[4]

Initially, the business secured $4.5 million in growth equity from Advent Venture Partners in July 2010 to help it expand its presence into Brazilian, North American and European markets. Following this, Farfetch raised a second round of $18 million in funding from Advent Venture Partners, Index Ventures and eVenture Capital Partners collectively.

In March 2013, a further $20 million investment was announced[5] from global publishing house Conde Nast International, which was supported by subsequent funding in May 2014, totalling $66 million,[6] from additional investment sources including Conde Nast International.

A key milestone for the business was then reached in March 2015, when Farfetch gained a further US$86 from a group of investors led by the software company DST Global. Former investors also contributed to this Series E funding round, which took the total investment pot to over US$195 million. Such investors included Advent Ventures Partners, Condé Nast International, Index Ventures, Novel TMT, eVentures and Vitruvian Partners. Following on from this, Farfetch announced the acquisition of iconic London-based boutique retailer Browns in May 2015. [7]

In May 2015, Private Eye noted that Farfetch had become a so-called Unicorn company.

In 2008 José Neves launched Farfetch, bringing together his interests in fashion and technology, as well as his experience in design, wholesale and retail, to create a business that would celebrate and support the diversity of the global fashion industry.

The seasoned entrepreneur had experienced first-hand the challenges facing bricks-and-mortar retailers wanting to expand online. His vision was to create a single portal, offering independent boutiques the opportunity to compete with the leaders of fashion e-commerce.

Farfetch now comprises more than 300 boutiques, offering over 100,000 pieces from 1,000 brands. With customers in almost 190 countries, the site receives an average of 10 million monthly hits.

José has been involved in the fashion start-up world since the mid-1990s when he launched footwear business SWEAR. José later founded SIX London, a fashion licensing and wholesale company selling to 600 retailers worldwide. In 2001 José opened the renowned bstore, which won the British Fashion Award for Retailer of the Year in 2006.

José has received numerous accolades as an entrepreneur and for his business ventures, including The Business of Fashion’s 500 People Shaping the Fashion Industry in 2013, Ernst & Young’s 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year and Vogue’s DirectorsOf.COM Top Entrepreneur in 2011.