Touch of Modern
Touch of Modern (aka ToMo) is a members-only e-commerce website and app focused on selling lifestyle products, fashion, and accessories to men. The company is based in San Francisco, California and was launched in March 2012.[2]
Type of site | E-commerce |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Headquarters | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Key people | Jerry Hum, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman Egon Smola, CEO Steven Ou, Co-Founder, CTO Dennis Liu, Co-Founder Jonathan Wu, Co-Founder |
URL | www |
Launched | March 24, 2012[1] (as RAVN) |
History
Touch of Modern was founded by Dennis Liu, Jonathan Wu, Steven Ou, and Jerry Hum in 2012. It was previously known as Skyara; it then became RAVN.[2] The company went through two pivots before the Touch of Modern site was unveiled in 2012.[2] Three months after launching, the website achieved $1M in revenue.[3] Touch of Modern is focused on curation and personalization to differentiate itself from the competition.[4] It is primarily targeted at men with over 70% of its customers being male, the majority of whom purchase through the mobile app.[5]
In August 2012, Fab.com filed a lawsuit against Touch of Modern alleging that Touch of Modern infringed Fab.com's trademarks, trade dress, and copyrights. Fab.com alleged that elements of its site design, including its site's overall look and feel, visual icons and product descriptions, were copied by Touch of Modern.[6] The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in March 2013.[7]
Funding
Touch of Modern raised seed funding from i/o Ventures in 2010 and $3 million Series A from Floodgate Fund and Hillsven Capital in 2013.[8][9][10] In 2014, it announced a $14 million Series B funding (via a mix of equity and debt) which was led by Partech Ventures, and included participation from Great Oaks VC, Lucas Venture Group, Silicon Valley Bank, and existing investors, Hillsven and Floodgate, bringing Touch of Modern's total funding to $17 million and followed a year in which the two-year-old company grew its revenue by 400 percent.[11]
References
- "TouchOfModern.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-07-06.
- Lunden, Ingrid (2012-5-16). "Third Pivot's The Charm? Events Site Ravn Becomes Flash Sales Site Touch Of Modern". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- Liu, Dennis (2013-4-11). "We Made $1,000,000 In 3 Months And This Is What I Learned". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- Hartley, Scott (2012-08-17). "The Rise of 'Me Commerce'". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- "TouchOfModern Lands USD14m For Flash Sales Of Designer Goods". Strategy Eye Digital Media. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- Taylor, Coleen (August 15, 2012) "Fab Sues Flash Sales Site TouchOfModern For Alleged Trademark Infringement." TechCrunch. (Retrieved 5-1-2014.)
- Brooke, Eliza (July 16, 2013) "Fab Lawsuit Resolved, TouchOfModern Raises $3M Series A And Looks Toward Asia." TechCrunch. (Retrieved 5-1-2014.)
- "Floodgate Companies" Archived 2012-12-03 at the Wayback Machine. Floodgate. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
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- "Crunchbase Companies". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2013-06-06.
- Dishman, Lydia. "Women Shop But Men Are Buying Big On TouchOfModern". Forbes. Forbes. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
- Carney, Michael. "TouchOfModern raises $14M to prove that the era of men's commerce has finally arrived". Pando Daily. Pando Daily. Retrieved 15 July 2014.