Greycroft Leads $3.6M Series A Funding Round in Blitsy
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 07, 2015 -- Blitsy, a leading arts and crafts e-Commerce company and community, today announced closing a $3.6 million Series A funding round led by Greycroft Partners with support from new investor Data Point Capital. Existing investors re-upped, including Chicago Ventures, FireStarter Fund, Lakewest Venture Partners, as well as notable angel investors Brian Spaly, CEO of Trunk Club, and Binh Tran, Co-Founder of Klout. Spaly will also join as a Blitsy board member.
Chicago-based Blitsy is changing the way creative people worldwide buy their arts and crafts supplies. The company is focused on discovering and offering the crafting industry’s latest designs and trends from crafters’ favorite brands in one online location. Through highly curated selections of the world’s best craft supplies combined with high-quality video lessons featuring industry experts, the site is a source of inspiration for beginners and experts alike. In addition, Blitsy’s pricing and product breadth rival the major big box retailers, including Michael's Stores, Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and AC Moore.
“Having grown up in the arts and crafts industry, I’ve come to realize that the leaders of this $30B market have largely ignored tech innovation, focusing almost entirely on product ideation and releasing new products for do-it-yourselfers,” said Ross Petersen, CEO of Blitsy and former Director of Digital Infrastructure at Michaels. “These same big-box retailers are now more focused on knocking off successful private-label products that established or up-and-coming brands are actively creating. This has paved the way for us to partner with many amazing brands that are losing visibility within brick and mortars by providing them with the ability to distribute their products to our worldwide customer base.”
Blitsy was cofounded by siblings Ross Petersen, Ryan Petersen, and Katy Weade, as well as their longtime business partner Ab Fadel. After selling their prior digital-scrapbooking startup to Michael’s Stores in 2010, they rejoined forces in 2012 to disrupt the industry in the same way many other tech companies have unhinged multi-billion dollar incumbents.
“We have been following the team at Blitsy for some time and have been continually impressed by their vision and meticulous execution,” said Ellie Wheeler, Principal at Greycroft Partners. “We look forward to supporting them as they build on their current momentum.”
“Our firm focuses on identifying and investing in leaders who can leverage and scale on the web. Blitsy has developed an entire ecosystem from the ground up that is already transforming how arts and crafts are purchased on a global scale. It’s a perfect example of how businesses can leverage the scale and economies of the Internet to disrupt traditional business models,” adds Data Point Capital’s Scott Savitz. “We are excited to work with Ross and his executive team to continue their expansive growth trajectory.”
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About Blitsy
Blitsy is an innovative e-commerce company changing the way creative people worldwide buy arts and crafts supplies. Through highly curated sales events combined with high-quality video lessons featuring industry experts, the company is a source of inspiration for beginning and expert crafters alike as well as schools and other community-based organizations interested in buying crafting supplies in bulk at extraordinarily competitive prices. For more information visit https://blitsy.com/ or download their mobile apps via the App Store.
About Greycroft Partners
Greycroft Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on investments in the Internet and mobile markets. With offices in the two media capitals of the world – New York and Los Angeles – Greycroft is uniquely positioned to serve entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners. Greycroft leverages an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships, successfully bring their products to market, and build successful businesses. Greycroft manages $600 million and has made over 100 investments since its inception, including in leading companies such as AppAnnie, Baublebar, Braintree, Buddy Media, Collective, Extreme Reach, Huffington Post, JW Player, Klout, Maker Studios, Plain Vanilla, Pulse, TheRealReal, Trunk Club, and WideOrbit. For more information please visit the Greycroft Partners website at http://www.greycroft.com
About Data Point Capital
Data Point Capital focuses on companies that can be leveraged and scaled on the Internet and touch the consumer. Categories of interest include mobile, gaming, social networks, payments, comparison-shopping, e-commerce and emerging technologies. Our opportunistic approach allows us to invest in companies that are at key inflection points in their lifecycles. The firm is made up of business executives and Internet leaders who have created tremendous value through building a number of very successful companies. At Data Point Capital, we like to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs and that by investing with independent thinking based on real, differentiating innovation and complementary key metrics, superior results can be achieved. For more information please visit the Data Point Capital website at http://www.datapointcapital.com
elizabeth conway, Blitsy, https://blitsy.com/, +1 2128931208, [email protected]
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