The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
NEW YORK, United States — Despite its bold vision, digital platform and hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital funding, Rent the Runway doesn't see itself as a disruptor. Rather, chief executive Jennifer Hyman said the company is simply responding to new consumer trends — namely the rise of the sharing economy and the growth of online fashion rentals — and helping the industry to adapt.
The goal here is to create the Amazon Prime of rental, to usher in a new form of dynamic ownership
"The goal here is to create the Amazon Prime of rental, to usher in a new form of dynamic ownership," said Hyman. "This round gives us the ability to have full control over our financial destiny," Hyman continued, adding that a public listing was a future possibility. Three of Rent the Runway's backers are institutional investors, including Fidelity, which led the company's Series E round in late 2016.
Jennifer Hyman | Source: Courtesy
This equity round comes just six months after Rent the Runway secured a $200 million debt facility from Temasek, an investment firm owned by the Singaporean government. The urgency, according to Hyman, was demand created by the inventory that the company was able to buy from the credit facility.
"We [saw] that the subscription product offering had accelerated demand and also that there's a much wider market size potential than we had anticipated," she said.
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