JustFabulous raises $33M for subscription shopping

JustFabulous, a glitzy online subscription shopping service for women, announced Wednesday that it has raised $33 million in a Series A round of funding led by Matrix Partners, with help from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).  Fashion guru Kimora Lee Simmons, star of Style Network’s “Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane,” also participated in the round and has joined the company as President and Creative Director.

Like ShoeDazzle, JustFabulous is a personalized shopping destination for women that operates as a monthly subscription for shoes and handbags.  Users sign up and take a style quiz to identify their fashion tastes based on their celebrity style leanings (are they conservative, a risk taker, bohemian, or classic?), and then get monthly picks for shoes and handbags to fit their style.  If they don’t like the pick, they can simply decline the purchase and wait until next month’s pick.  And like ShoeDazzle, the monthly subscription is $39.95.

Launched in March 2010, the company’s user base has grown to 2.5 million, and CEO Adam Goldenberg tells me that the site’s users are urban and suburban women between the ages of 25-45.

In May, JustFabulous launched a mobile-optimized website to make mobile shopping easier for the 10% of users who visit the site from a mobile device.  Since then, Goldenberg says that mobile traffic has risen to 15%.

JustFabulous was incubated by Intelligent Beauty, an e-commerce business incubator founded by Don Ressler and JustFabulous CEO Adam Goldenberg.

With the success of ShoeDazzle, a number of companies have been following in its footsteps, such asBeachMint, which reportedly just raised a $23.5 million round of funding for a rumored valuation of $150 million, and the London-based StylistPick, which just raised an $8 million Series A from Accel and Index. 

Could subscription-based fashion e-commerce companies be the next Groupon wave?

“We believe this space will experience explosive growth in the coming months, and the JustFabulous team is poised to transform the fashion industry,” said Josh Hannah of Matrix Partners in a statement. “While JustFabulous provides a service that savvy, fashion-conscious women are clamoring for, its level of personalization is unmatched. As the team continues to execute its vision, this will be an exciting company to watch.”