San Francisco, CA – Marketwire – April 13, 2011 – Sugar Inc., a fast-growing global media company for women, announced today that it has completed a $15 million later-stage round of financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms. The Company’s original and consistent partner Sequoia Capital also participated in the round.
Sugar intends to use the funds for brand extensions, acquisitions, and international growth in pursuit of its goal of becoming the world’s largest media company focusing exclusively on women’s lifestyle. This round brings Sugar’s total funding to $46 million.
Sugar is the online leader in original content, social media, and commerce targeting trendsetting women, with a global audience of more than 20 million. The company has two business segments focusing on original content and commerce with a portfolio of brands including PopSugar.com, ShopStyle.com, PopSugarCity.com, and Fashionologie.com. Sugar has 190 employees and operations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia.
"On the eve of our five-year anniversary, Lisa and I are proud of the success and rapid growth we have demonstrated to date," said Brian Sugar, founder and CEO of Sugar. "In the last year we achieved significant milestones, including growing our audience to over 20 million unique visitors per month, driving over $250 million in commerce to our partners, and reaching profitability for the full year. We are excited with the opportunities ahead of us as we continue to pioneer the combination of content and commerce."
"Sugar is led by an outstanding management team that has driven impressive growth in a diverse set of complementary revenue streams," said Dennis Phelps, General Partner of IVP. "We see an enormous market opportunity and are excited about Sugar’s ability to execute in a world of slower-moving incumbents."
"Brian and Lisa Sugar are entertaining a new generation of women. They do so around the clock and on hundreds of millions of mobile and web devices. But Sugar Inc. is still at the beginning of what is possible," said Michael Moritz, General Partner of Sequoia.
About Sugar Inc.
Since being founded in 2006, Sugar Inc. (https://www.sugarinc.com/) has maintained its mission to entertain and delight its audience by producing insanely addictive content, unmatched shopping experiences, and a robust social community. Sugar is a leading international diversified women’s media company with an audience of more than 20 million monthly unique visitors. The company has two business segments focusing on original content and commerce with a portfolio of brands including PopSugar.com, ShopStyle.com, PopSugarCity.com, and Fashionologie.com. Sugar has 190 employees and operations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. Sugar is privately held and backed by Sequoia Capital and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).
About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)
With $3 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. The partnership is currently investing IVP XIII, a $750 million later-stage fund focused on investments in rapidly growing media and technology companies. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 86 of which have gone public. IVP has a 30 year IRR of 43.2% and is one of the top performing firms in the industry. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as ArcSight (HPQ), Aspect Communications, At Road (TRMB), Business.com (DEXO), Clarify (DOX), ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Danger (MSFT), Digital River (DRIV), Foundry Networks (BRCD), HomeAway, Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak, LivingSocial, LSI Corporation (LSI), Mobile 365 (SAP), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Polycom (PLCM), Quigo (TWX), Seagate (STX), Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter, Websense (WBSN) and Zynga. For more information, visit https://www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivp.
About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments. The firm invests in all sectors with a focus on energy, financial services, healthcare services, internet, mobile, outsourcing and technology. Sequoia Capital was founded in 1972 and has offices in China, India, Israel and the U.S.