Spring was 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 ...

platform that connected retailers and shoppers using a

direct-to-consumer Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transa ...

sales model. The company, headquartered in New York City, launched its mobile marketplace on August 14, 2014. It raised over $30 million in venture funding by 2015. The platform was recognized by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

as one of the Best apps of 2014. In October 2018, the membership service ''ShopRunner'' announced the acquisition of Spring and closed the platform in 2019.

History

Spring was founded in 2013 by the brothers Alan and David Tisch, former

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

employees, Octavian Costache, and Ara Katz. The company originally operated as Jello Labs, and announced the name change to Spring in July 2014 when it raised $7.5 million in Series A round funding led by

Thrive Capital Thrive Capital Management, LLC, commonly Thrive Capital, is an American venture capital firm based in New York City. It focuses on software and internet investments. The firm was founded by Joshua Kushner who is also co-founder of Oscar Health ...

. The company chose the name Spring to mirror the shopping area on Spring Street in

SoHo, Manhattan SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall (SoHo), and ha ...

. The app was officially launched on August 14, 2014, with 250 brands selling their products on the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

-based platform. In April 2015, Spring raised $25 million in a Series B round of venture funding led by Box Group that included

Yuri Milner Yuri Borisovich (Bentsionovich) Milner (, ; born 11 November 1961) is a Soviet-born Israeli entrepreneur, investor, physicist and scientist. He is a co-founder and former chairperson of internet company Mail.Ru Group (later VK), and a founder ...

, Google Ventures and Thrive Capital. Spring launched a desktop version of the shopping platform in November 2015. In March 2016, Spring launched a "personal shopping assistant" on Facebook's bot store. In December 2016, Spring had 1,300 brands on the platform including

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

, Helmut Lang and Coach. Spring raised $65 million in a Series C round of venture funding led by

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the ...

that included previous investors in May 2017. As of May 2017, Spring sold items from over 1,500 retail brands and had a gross value of over $100 million.

Operations

Spring was launched using a mobile first or m-commerce strategy and the company operated without a website until 2015. It did not stock any inventory directly, and instead used a

drop shipping Drop shipping is a form of retail business in which the seller accepts customer orders without keeping stock on hand. Instead, in a form of supply chain management, the seller transfers the orders and their shipment details either to the manufa ...

methodology to fulfill orders. The site also curated personalized collections and offered users brand recommendations.

References

Privately held companies based in New York City Software companies based in New York City Software companies established in 2014 Retail companies established in 2014 Internet properties established in 2014 Online retailers of the United States 2014 in New York City 2014 establishments in New York City American companies established in 2014 Defunct software companies of the United States {{US-software-company-stub