Leading Personalized Kids Retailer KIDBOX Grows Up With $15.3M Series B Round, Led By Canvas Ventures

NEW YORK, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KIDBOX announced today it has secured $15.3M in a Series B funding round, bringing the total amount raised to date to $28M. The round was led by Canvas Ventures, investors behind several female-founded and led companies including Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global and wedding registry site Zola, with participation from existing investors Firstime Ventures and HDS Capital. New strategic partners include Fred Langhammer, former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., and The Gindi Family, owners of Century 21 department stores. This new capital infusion underscores the bullishness of prominent Silicon Valley players and leading retail innovators in KIDBOX, its long-term vision, purpose-based mission, and potential to be a dominant force in shaping the future of a highly-curated, personalized kids e-tail sector.  

While the retail industry is undergoing a tumultuous moment, KIDBOX has emerged as a category leader in the rapidly changing kids apparel and accessories market, which is a $60B industry in the US alone. At the intersection of tech and style, KIDBOX is thriving with its unique data science capabilities and  personalized, curated approach to delivering experiences to parents and children. In Q1 2018 new customers grew 3.1x over Q1 2017. To date, the KIDBOX community includes over 1.2M families. This growth is driven by KIDBOX's proprietary personalization algorithm and the unique experience the company is providing to a new generation of parents and children. KIDBOX is now featuring over 100 premier brand partners including Adidas, Puma, 7 for all Mankind, Diesel, DKNY, Splendid, and Jessica Simpson.  

"KIDBOX offers the ease and convenience for parents to shop for all of their kids in the comfort of their homes where the living room is the new dressing room and where kids can undergo true self-discovery when deciding which styles, brands, and looks fit them best," said KIDBOX CEO Miki Racine Berardelli. "Brands understand the importance of our distribution model that delivers their products and experiences over the threshold of the biggest retail storefronts today, people's homes. We are very pleased to partner with the Canvas team and remain laser-focused on creating an exceptionally personalized product offering unique experiences for our customers."

Canvas Ventures' investment in this space underscores their conviction about the future of KIDBOX's trajectory to be the dominant player in this category.

KIDBOX is revolutionizing shopping for parents and children with its try now, pay later, shop at home with no obligation model. With its creative presentation, unpacking experience, and its Kids Board of Directors, KIDBOX also makes shopping for quality, on-trend apparel exciting and fun for kids. The new funding will be utilized to further expand the company's data science team as well as to further ramp up customer acquisition.

The company's social mission to clothe one million children in need is also having a profound impact on its targeted audiences. "KIDBOX was founded with a social mission at its core," said Haim Dabah, KIDBOX Founder. "We are pleased to have learned that for many parents, KIDBOX's purpose-based mission is also representing the first opportunity to introduce their kids to the power of philanthropy and giving to those less fortunate." To date, KIDBOX has donated $3.9M in clothing value to children in need through a partnership with Delivering Good.

"We are excited to be partnering with Miki Racine Berardelli and Haim Dabah who are two proven, exceptional entrepreneurs. They have innovated a new, magical shopping experience for families. The company's rapid growth reflects the fact that they have struck a chord with parents, grandparents, and children alike. Customers are passionate about the KIDBOX brand because they get satisfaction from supporting the company's social mission as well as from quality, fashionable clothing. Miki and Haim have carefully built a culture that encourages meaningful conversations for families while bringing lovingly-curated children's clothing directly into their homes," said Paul Hsiao, Canvas Ventures General Partner. Hsiao will be joining the KIDBOX board of directors.

About KIDBOX
KIDBOX, a VC-backed startup launched in 2016, is the first kids' style box offering cool brands, amazing prices, and a mission to clothe one million children in need. Leveraging proprietary data science and machine learning, the brand creates a fun and effortless shopping experience that brings parents and children together to discover personalized styles and start the conversation about the importance of giving back. KIDBOX stylists curate a unique box full of stylish pieces personalized for each child from newborn to size 14. The seasonal boxes feature premier brands including Splendid, Jessica Simpson, DKNY, Adidas, PUMA & 7 For All Mankind. In Spring 2017, KIDBOX introduced Baby by KIDBOX, a seasonal babywear box. To give back and help promote philanthropy among a younger generation, a new clothing item is donated to a child in need for every kept KIDBOX and Baby by KIDBOX through a partnership with Delivering Good. Miki Racine Berardelli, CEO, is a member of the National Retail Federation Board of Directors. KIDBOX is headquartered in New York. Visit https://www.kidbox.com/.

About Canvas
Founded in 2013, Canvas is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley with general partners Paul Hsiao, Rebecca Lynn, and Gary Little. Prior to founding Canvas, the partners led the Series B investment in Lending Club and the Series A investment in MuleSoft, two of the top-10 IPOs in the US since 2013 according to The New York Times. Canvas was also ranked #1 in the "VC Diversity Index" in 2018 by The Information. The firm's key investment areas include online marketplaces, AI/machine learning, digital health, fintech, and "new enterprise." Canvas portfolio companies include: 11 Honoré, Casetext, eporta, Eden, Everwise, Figure Eight, Fluxx, Folloze, FutureAdvisor, Gabi, HealthLoop, Hustle, KIDBOX, Kinetica, Luminar Technologies, Platform9, Roofstock, Thrive Global, Totango, Transfix, Vida Health, Viewics, and Zola. Other investments the partners have made prior to founding Canvas include: Houzz, Evernote, NexTag, Check, Doximity, Upwork, and more. www.canvas.vc.

SOURCE KIDBOX