Kim Kardashian
Photo By Thomas Iannaccone
CASH FOR KARDASHIAN: Celebrity Kim Kardashian and business partner Brian Lee have scored a coup with a $40 million investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz for their online footwear and accessories site ShoeDazzle.com. Andreessen Horowitz is also an investor in Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Skype and Twitter. Lee, chief executive officer and co-founder of the e-commerce site, said the funding will help the company expand into new categories and internationally. “We are launching in the U.K. in the next couple of months,” he said, noting that the firm is also in discussions to expand into Asia by the end of the year and South America after that.
The site has more than 3 million subscribers. John O’Farrell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said, “ShoeDazzle is the first vertical e-commerce business we’ve invested in,” noting that it was attracted to the firm’s use of social media and its subscription model, believed to be the first of its kind on the Web, which guarantees regular income every month. After three financing rounds, the two-year-old ShoeDazzle has attracted more than $60 million in venture capital financing. Of course, Kardashian probably doesn’t hurt when attracting investors, either.
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