June 13, 2012 8:00am EST New York, NY – Last week privately-held Fanatics LLC (PrivCo Private Company Ticker: FANATCP), a sports apparel website, closed a $150 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation from venture capital firms Andreesen Horowitz and Insight Ventures. The capital helped to fund Fanatics’ $181 million acquisition of publicly-held Dreams, Inc., another online sports merchandise company.
With a total value of $1.5 billion, Fanatics enters an exclusive yet growing club of venture-backed companies whose valuations have reached or surpassed the $1 billion mark. According to PrivCo research, approximately 20 private companies claim membership in PrivCo's ‘Billion Dollar Club’, with most of those valuations occurring in the heady days before Facebook’s IPO.
PrivCo breaks down its Top 10 notable members of the PrivCo ‘Billion Dollar Club’, a club likely to become more exclusive - with new $1 billion plus VC-round valuations likely in jeopardy following Facebook’s IPO debacle:
1. Spotify (PrivCo Ticker: SPOTFYP)
- Funding Date: June 17, 2011
- Funding Round: $100 million
- Valuation: $1 billion
- Key Investors: Digital Sky Technologies, Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Spotify also has a rumored funding round currently in the works that will solidify its membership in the Billion Dollar Club:
- Rumored Next Funding Date : June-July 2012
- Rumored Next Funding Round: $220 million
- Rumored Next Valuation: $4 billion
- Rumored Key Investors: Goldman Sachs
2. Pinterest (PrivCo Ticker: PINTP)
- Funding Date: May 17, 2012
- Funding Round: $100 million
- Valuation: $1.5 billion
- Key Investors: Rakuten, Andreesen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital
3. Evernote (PrivCo Ticker: EVERP)
- Funding Date: May 3, 2012
- Funding Round: $70 million
- Valuation: $1 billion
- Key Investors: Meritech Capital, CBC Capital, T. Rowe Price, Harbor Pacific Capital, Allen & Company
4. Workday (PrivCo Ticker: WORKP)
- Funding Date: October 24, 2011
- Funding Round: $85 million
- Valuation: $2 billion
- Key Investors: T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley, Janus Capital, Bezos Expeditions
5. Dropbox (PrivCo Ticker: DROPBP)
- Funding Date: October 18, 2011
- Funding Round: $250 million
- Valuation: $4 billion
- Key Investors: Index Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners, Valiant Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Hadi & Ali Partovi
6. Twitter (PrivCo Ticker: TWEETP)
- Funding Date: September 8, 2011
- Funding Round: $800 million
- Valuation: $8 billion
- Key Investors: Digital Sky Technologies
7. Palantir Technologies (PrivCo Ticker: PALAP)
- Funding Date: September 7, 2011
- Funding Round: $68 million
- Valuation: $2.5 billion
- Key Investors: SAC Capital, Tiger Global Management
- Current Rumored Valuation: $4 billion
8. Airbnb, Inc. (PrivCo Ticker: AIRBP)
- Funding Date: July 25, 2011
- Funding Round: $112 million
- Valuation: $1.3 billion
- Key Investors: Digital Sky Technologies, Andreesen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Jeff Bezos (Amazon Founder and CEO), Ashton Kutcher
- Current Rumored Valuation: $3-4 billion
9. Square (PrivCo Ticker: SQUAP)
- Funding Date: June 29, 2011
- Funding Round: $100 million
- Valuation: $1.6 billion
- Key Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Tiger Global Management
- Current Rumored Valuation: $4 billion
10. Gilt Groupe (PrivCo Ticker: GILTP)
- Funding Date: May 10, 2011
- Funding Round: $138 million
- Valuation: $1 billion
- Key Investors: Goldman Sachs, Softbank
- Current Rumored Valuation: $882 million based on a secondary market transaction on May 22, 2012
Each of these private companies' valuations were supported by significant tail winds from Facebook's IPO. Moving forward, PrivCo CEO & Founder Sam Hamadeh expects a cooling off from VC firms and companies seeking huge valuations.
"VC firms investing at any stage will be affected by the Facebook IPO fiasco and hopefully exercise greater caution on funding companies, especially those with overly high valuations or weak business models," said Hamadeh in a statement.
Hamadeh added, "Valuations for companies will certainly come down, with $1 billion plus VC round valuations again becoming increasingly rare," meaning Fanatics may be the newest and last member of the PrivCo 'Billionaire Club' - at least for a while.
