DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer brands. In today’s edition: Tourlane Series B to boost international presence; Gett gears up for IPO; Glossier continues pop-up trend.

Tourlane Series B to boost international presence

Tourlane has raised USD$47m (£36m) in a round led by Sequoia and Spark Capital. This Series C funding comes six months after their B round, and will be used for further international expansion, hiring and product development.

Julian Stiefel, co-CEO and co-founder, Tourlane, said in a statement: “The additional capital will help us strengthen our position and continue our international growth to create the best experience in travel. We’re thrilled to continue working with our high-class investors and are extremely proud of the hard work, commitment and effort of our great team at Tourlane.”

DTC Daily spoke to Stiefel in February, when he told us that the business was working on an app, which accompanies clients during their whole trip, as well as increasing their use of machine learning to deliver personalised offers. He outlined that, unlike traditional travel agents, and other online competitors, Tourlane lets customers dodge the flood of information that can occur when booking a trip.

The latest round means that Tourlane have now raised USD$81m (£62m) to date, since being founded in 2016.

Gett gears up for IPO

Gett, the ride-hailing startup that focuses primarily on the business market, currently in Israel, the UK, Russia and New York — has picked up USD$200m (£154m) in a mix of debt and equity at a post-money valuation of USD$1.5bn (£1.15bn).

This latest round of funding — which would bring Israel-based Gett’s total raised to USD$790m (£607m) — comes from all of the company’s existing investors, including carmaker VW. It is an extension and closing of the round that TechCrunch reported back in June 2018 at a USD$1.4bn (£1.07bn) valuation: the expansion to USD$200m (£154m) from USD$80m (£61m) is why the valuation has also gone up.

Gett’s pared-down approach is overshadowed by Lyft in the US, and Uber globally, in terms of size. But the latter two companies’ growth stories come with massive losses: Uber racked up USD$1bn (£770m) in losses in just the previous quarter, for example.

Within its smaller footprint, Gett is less intent on being 'number one' as it is about continuing to see traction and usage from the higher-end customers that it targets.

Glossier continues pop-up trend

Glossier is launching a pop-up store in Capitol Hill, Seattle, hot off achieving Unicorn status following a USD$100m (£770m) investment.

The business, which has differentiated from beauty lines sold at department stores and drug stores, targets a predominantly younger audience, who often follow the brand on Instagram and other social media channels. The business has previously launched pop-ups in Chicago, San Francisco, and London.

The fact that Glossier is launching physical locations, as well as its recent Unicorn status, is a welcome shot in the arm for the DTC beauty industry. With the demise of Julep, there was bound to be a drop off in confidence from investors in the sector, but Glossier's fortunes in the recent months show that there is hope yet in the sector, which should bring money in, and boost burgeoning DTC beauty brands.  

Glossier has developed into a business driving USD$100m in annual revenue; and the rate at which it has done so is startling, with revenue more than doubling in 2018.