Fab is an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

company founded in 2010. Once estimated at a worth of over $1 billion, in March 2015, the digital and ecommerce assets of Fab were acquired by PCH International for an undisclosed sum and has since been relaunched as a new entity with no interaction from the original founders. It grew from 175,000 members in June 2011, to over 10 million as of December 2012. As of April 30, 2013, Fab disclosed it received 6 million unique visitors per month and had sold over seven million products since launch. Fab was originally headquartered in Manhattan and operated a warehouse in Keasbey, New Jersey. The company once had office locations in Pune (India), and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. By April 2019, the website had pivoted to selling health and fitness products and was owned by Irish ecommerce marketer John Larkin. The site hasn't been online since late December 2022 according to the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. The domain is now for Fab, a digital asset marketplace by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

. In 2024, Epic Games launched Fab as a digital asset marketplace, merging the

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

Marketplace,

Sketchfab Sketchfab is a 3D asset website used to publish, share, discover, buy and sell 3D model, 3D, Virtual reality, VR and Augmented reality, AR content. It provides a viewer based on the WebGL and WebXR technologies that allows users to display 3D m ...

Store, Quixel, and ArtStation Marketplace. The platform offers an 88% revenue share and will expand to include

Roblox Roblox (, ) is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users. It was created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 200 ...

, Minecraft assets, and MetaHumans.

History

Fab was founded in February 2010 by Jason Goldberg (formerly of XING AG and Jobster) and chief designer Bradford Shellhammer. The pair had previously founded Fabulis which was a social network for gay men and their friends before pivoting on June 9, 2011 into Fab, with its model of daily design inspirations and sales. In November 2011, five months after re-launching, Fab reached 1 million members. The company reached this number faster than

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Groupon Groupon, Inc. is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching ...

. In September 2012, Fab removed the membership requirements to browse the site. In December 2012, Fab passed 10 million members, up from 7.5 million members in September. Fab also announced it had sold more than 4.3 million products since its launch, averaging 5.4 products sold per minute. In July 2013, Fab eliminated 100 positions at its

office as a profit-building measure. Fab laid off 101 more staff, primarily at its

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

office in October 2013, further reducing their workforce by 19 percent. In September 2014, Fab launched a sister website Hem, a design site offering customized furniture designs. In 2014, Bradford Shellhammer left his role as chief design officer to create his own curated design marketplace, Bezar.

Acquisitions

Fab made its first acquisition in January 2012 when it purchased independent fashion retailer FashionStake. In February 2012, Fab purchased German flash sales website Casacanda, founded by Roman Kirsch in 2011. Four months later the company acquired UK-based online design retailer Llustre. In June 2014, Fab acquired Finnish e-retailer One Nordic Furniture for an undisclosed sum paid in cash and stock.Juhana Rossi
"Fab Acquires One Nordic Furniture,"
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', June 18, 2014.

Social commerce

Fab promoted social commerce. The company maintained an Inspiration Wall where members could upload and share design inspirations. In December 2011, Fab introduced its “Live Feed”, which enables users to share what they are buying, liking, and tweeting on Fab.com. In January 2012, Fab was among Facebook's initial partners as part of its integration of social tools through the Facebook Timeline. The company also employed a mobile first strategy with its digital products, with an emphasis on iPad and iPhone, and released a custom mobile app in October 2012.

Funding

Less than two months after launching in June 2011 Fab secured an $8 million funding round led by Menlo Ventures with existing investors including

First Round Capital First Round Capital is a US-based venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage funding to technology companies. Founded by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan First Round typically provides seed-stage funding and focuses on po ...

, Baroda Ventures, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', Founder and CEO Jason Goldberg, SoftTech VC, SV Angel, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary and A-Grade Investments, and Zelkova Ventures also participating. In December 2011, Fab.com raised a $40 million round of funding led by investment firm

Andreessen Horowitz AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of M ...

, bringing its total funding to over $51 million. Fab's largest round of funding, $105 million, occurred shortly after its 1-year anniversary in July 2012. The Series C round was led by Atomico with the following previous investors also participating:

, Menlo Ventures,

, Baroda Ventures, ru-Net Technology Partners (RTP), Pinnacle Ventures, Izurium Capital, Docomo Capital, and

Mayfield Fund Mayfield, also known as Mayfield Fund, is a US-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage to growth-stage investments in enterprise and consumer technology companies. Founded in 1969 and based in Menlo Park, California. History The ...

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.fab.com Internet properties established in 2010 Online marketplaces of Germany 2010 establishments in Germany