Digital-first brands have the capacity to disrupt their brick-and-mortar counterparts
In March 2019, Glossier, known variously as a millennial makeup company, a beauty brand and a direct-to-consumer (DTC) startup, entered the hallowed unicorn club after it scored Series D funding of $100 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital. Within a week, it was the turn of Casper Sleep, an online mattress retailer, to join the league of $1 billion in valuation (although an initial public offering in February 2020 ensured that Casper would lose its unicorn status). Around the same time, DTC luggage brand Away went on to be valued at $1.4 billion after a series D round of $100 million.
(This story appears in the 14 August, 2020 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)