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Dec 08 2011 4:29pm EDT

Fab Gets a Fabulous $40 Million

Fab.com co-founders Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer

Fab.com’s pivot from social networking to flash sales has certainly paid off.

The design-centric e-commerce site, which secured 1.2 million members in just six months and added online pop-up shops earlier this fall to its 72-hour flash-sales model, closed $40 million in Series B financing Wednesday.

The new round was led by investment firm Andreessen Horowitz with other contributors including Menlo Ventures, First Round Capital, Baroda Ventures, SoftTech VC, along with actor Ashton Kutcher and Madonna manager Guy Oseary via their venture capital fund A-Grade Investments. As part of the announcement, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Jeff Jordan, an e-commerce veteran himself, will join Fab.com's board of directors.

Serial entrepreneur Jason Goldberg cofounded Fab.com in 2010 with design industry veteran Bradford Shellhammer, as well as Deepa and Nishith Shah in India, and Veerle Pieters in Belgium. Six months ago, they pivoted the site from a social network for the gay community to a flash-sales site for home goods. Six weeks after its new mission, the startup landed $8 million in Series A funding.

With the new round of funding, the company intends to add new categories and capitalize on its social-media efforts. Members like to share their latest design finds using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, Goldberg told CNET.


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Teresa Novellino writes for Portfolio.com

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