Today e-commerce site Fab.com sold to PCH International, an Irish company that works with startups to create and manufacture products.
To honor this once hot startup, we've put together a timeline of events starting with Fab's entry into the market, to its fiery combustion and sale to PCH. The company raised a total of $335 million before selling out.
- Pre-Fab 2009-2011: Prior to the Fab we know today, the company was known as Fabulis, a gay social networking site that featured daily deals. A year in and a million dollars in seed funding later, the company realized that the site wasn't gaining enough traction. That's when co-founders Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer decided to pivot and launch Fab.
- June 9, 2011: Fab.com launches as a design-centric e-commerce site built around flash sales.
- July 26, 2011: The company lands an $8 million series A round of funding and reaches 400,000 users. Fab reports that its site is already profitable.
- September 14, 2011: Fab rolls out Pop-up Shops, online stores within its site that only last for 30 days.
- October 11, 2011: The design store reaches 750,000 users and launches mobile apps on both iOS and Android.
- December 8, 2011: Six months after launching, Fab lands $40 million in series B funding, cementing its place as a hot startup with 1.2 million subscribers.
- February 20, 2012: Fab acquires German startup Casacanda, a membership-based shopping club for design pieces. Fab immediately expands to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
- May 16, 2012: Founder Jason Goldberg tries to recreate the experience of shopping with friends online through a redesign of Fab's site.
- June 18, 2012: Fab raises a crazy $105 million in a third round of funding.
- June 19, 2012: The following day, Fab snaps up British flash-sale site Llustre in an acquisition.
- November 1, 2012: Another $15 million in the bank.
- November 7, 2012: Fab expands to India with purchase of TrueSparrowSystems.
- November 30, 2012: On Cyber Monday, Fab racks up $1.3 million in sales — a record for the company.
- April 30, 2013: Pivot! Fab switches focus away from flash sales and towards developing its own line of goods and opening its own retail shop.
- June 19, 2013: Just after its second birthday, Fab raises $150 million.
- July 13, 2013: Fab takes in another $10 million in funding from SingTel Innov8.
- July 30, 2013: The beginning of the end? Fab lays off 100 employees in Berlin.
- August 12, 2013: In hopes of expanding to Japan, Fab extends its D round of funding one more time so Japan's Itochu Corporation can throw another $5 million in the ring.
- October 3, 2013: Fab lays off another 101 employees — nearly a fifth of its workforce.
- November 1, 2013: Co-founder Bradford Shellhammer leaves the company, saying in a blog post, "I want to make other things in this world. And Fab is at a point in its history where I’ve decided to walk away from the day to day."
- August 6, 2014: Fab starts entertaining potential suitors. CEO Jason Goldberg says the company has many offers, but he's not shopping Fab around.
- February 3, 2015: Fab sells to PCH for an undisclosed amount, though it may have sold for $7 million in cash and $8 million in stock, according to a report from Re/code. Founder Jason Goldberg will not follow the company to PCH and instead will man the helm at his other company, Hem.