Glossier, the direct-to-consumer beauty startup known for its addictive and cult-loved products — such as Boy Brow and Cloud Paint — is now famous for something else: The company has a more than $1 billion valuation ($1.2 billion to be exact, according to The Wall Street Journal).
On Tuesday, the company announced a new $100 million Series D capital infusion by Sequoia Capital, a firm that has previously invested in other high-profile cosmetics brands, such as Charlotte Tilbury, along with backing Apple Inc., Paypal, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss, who was featured in Forbes's 30 Under 30 in Retail in 2015, built the company — which got its start as the beauty blog "Into the Gloss" — from the ground up. Today, Glossier is a huge success, boasting $100 million in revenue in 2018 and 1.9 million followers on Instagram alone.
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Glossier’s billion-dollar valuation now makes it one of the rare “unicorn” companies founded by a woman to reach such high market value. In 2018 there were just 134 U.S. venture capital–backed companies valued at $1 billion or above, and only 16 had a woman founder or cofounder.
Since reaching this impressive benchmark, Weiss has been bombarded with questions regarding the future of the company, specifically whether or not she has plans to take it public. "We are certainly in a position where…we are able to do that,” Weiss told The Wall Street Journal.
It remains to be seen what the future will bring for Glossier. But one thing is for sure: If it does go public on NASDAQ, Glossier would be one of the few women-led companies to do so.