FabKids Banking on $2.6 Million in Capital and Christina Applegate to Get Subscribers

To get a subscription e-commerce business off the ground these days, all a company needs is a dozen employees, a celebrity spokesperson and a couple million dollars in the bank.

Today’s example comes from San Francisco, where Personal Retailing has raised $2.6 million in capital to kick off FabKids, a children’s clothing brand.

Similar to other subscription services, FabKids will offer its members a three-piece outfit for $49.95 every month. The company is being led by ShopStyle founder Andy Moss, and fronted by celebrity spokeswoman Christina Applegate.

Fabkids follows a well-honed approach created by other subscriptions services, like ShoeDazzle and JustFab, which worked with Kim Kardashian and Kimora Lee Simmons, respectively. (Although just last week, JustFab raised $76 million to fuel its growth, so clearly you need a little more than a couple million bucks to make it work.)

The round by Personal Retailing was led by Hillsven Capital, with participation from angels investors, including Brian Sugar, the CEO of Sugar Inc., a publishing company that acquired ShopStyle in 2007.

Moss dismissed concerns that the subscription model is worn out.

He believes that FabKids — and any other iterations that the parent company, Personal Retailing, comes up with — is serving a need in the market.

“When I was running ShopStyle, and we were aggregating all the best styles and brands in one place, consumers thought it was awesome, as long as they knew what brand they were looking for,” he said. “But they also said ‘It would be great to have the experience personalized for me.'”

In that way, Moss said, FabKids is the opposite of ShopStyle. Busy parents won’t have to comb through massive amounts of styles or brands to find something that their picky 10-year-old would like. Instead, the monthly choices sent will be based on a short quiz they take when signing up, answering simple questions about what colors they like and what activities they enjoy.

Additionally, Moss said, the service is targeting kids, who in theory will be growing out of their clothes on a regular basis, and will need the clothes.

As e-commerce evolves, Moss said he sees two kinds of online shopping emerging.

“Amazon is the one-stop shop for everything that you want delivered tomorrow, and then on the other other end, you will have a personalized service that will make it easy,” he said.

For now, the site will only sell girls’ clothes, which are created in-house by the company’s internal designers and manufactured in China, for girls size 2 through 8. Boys’ and infant apparel will be launching in 2013.

The company’s 12-person team comes from a variety of backgrounds, including ShopStyle, Tea Collection, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Land’s End, BabyStyle, Levi Strauss, One Kings Lane, Shutterfly, Procter & Gamble, Apple and PopSugar.

Here’s the full release:

ShopStyle Founder Teams Up with Actress Christina Applegate to Launch FabKids
To Personalize the Shopping Experience for Children’s Apparel

Innovative E-Commerce Company Announces $2.6 Million in Series A Funding

SAN FRANCISCO – August 2, 2012 – Personal Retailing Inc. today announced the launch of FabKids (http://fabkids.com/), a new children’s brand and personalized e-commerce service that keeps growing kids in fresh, affordable and stylish outfits every month. Led by ShopStyle founder and serial entrepreneur Andy Moss, together with new mom and actress Christina Applegate, FabKids delivers complete outfits designed, created by and sold exclusively on FabKids.com. Today, the company also announced that it has raised $2.6M in Series A funding led by Hillsven Capital, with additional investments from leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and angel investors.

“With annual sales reaching $100B globally, there’s a huge opportunity for success in the children’s apparel market,” said Brian Sugar, FabKids investor and CEO of Sugar Inc. “FabKids offers a truly unique approach for solving a key pain point for parents who want to make sure their children are in stylish, wearable, quality clothes, but don’t have the time or money to keep up as they constantly outgrow their clothes.”

HOW IT WORKS

FabKids was created to revolutionize the shopping experience for busy parents by providing them with ongoing style recommendations that are personalized for their child. With a monthly membership of $49.95, one outfit credit – good for a 3-piece head-to-toe outfit – is made available to members each month. Here’s how joining the FabKids’ outfit club works:

· Create a Style Profile: Members create a style profile based on a kid friendly quiz of 15 visual questions such as: What is your favorite color? Which is your favorite outfit for school (from bold trends to pretty florals to jeans and tees)?

· Shop your new Style Selection: Members receive personalized outfit picks each month; members have the option to buy the recommended outfit, choose another outfit or skip the month all together at no charge.

· Enjoy your new Outfit: Members receive their new outfit within a week. All outfits include free shipping and returns, and are backed by the FabKids’ “Pinky Promise” of 100% satisfaction guarantee.

“We are thrilled to bring personalized and convenient one-click outfit shopping to busy parents,” said founder and CEO, Andy Moss. “It’s a revolutionary new concept and working with a savvy partner like Christina Applegate, who shares our passion in personalizing the apparel market for stylish girls, has really helped bring this vision to life.”

FabKids launches with its Back-to-School collection of over 100 “ready-to-play” outfits for girls sizes 2-8, with sizes 10 and 12 soon to follow. The company also plans to expand into additional categories, beginning with Boys and Infant/Baby apparel scheduled to be introduced in 2013.

To learn more about FabKids, and to shop personalized outfits for your favorite girl, please visit http://fabkids.com/.

About FabKids
FabKids (www.fabkids.com), the new way to keep growing kids in stylish, affordable and ready-to play outfits, is a leading children’s apparel brand and innovative e-commerce website offering a personalized and convenient online shopping experience for busy parents.

The company was started by a team of parents, including actress and new mom Christina Applegate and ShopStyle founder and serial entrepreneur Andy Moss. The San Francisco based company includes a team of children’s clothing experts and e-commerce veterans from Tea Collection, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, ShopStyle and One Kings Lane.

FabKids is the first brand from Personal Retailing Inc. a privately held personalized e-commerce company backed by Hillsven Capital that was founded in August 2012. Follow FabKids on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or learn more at http://fabkids.com/.