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eCommerce - Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Doubleclick's Kevin Ryan Launches Funded Fashion Site Gilt Groupe

Our sister site alarm:clock euro has been tracking a number of startups that provide members only shopping and several of them have been successful. This trend is starting to make its way to the States as
Gilt Groupe has raised $5M from Matrix Partners.

Gilt Groupe is a private online community that provides members with access to fashion and luxury lifestyle brands at what it markets as sample sale prices. Membership is by invitation only, and there is no fee. Sales are structured as events that are designer specific and held over a one-day period. It launched on November 13th with a show build around designer Zac Posen. It plans on up to 3 events per week.

Gilt Groupe was co-founded by Kevin Ryan who was a founder of Doubleclick as well as more recently a number of startups like Shopwiki, Silicon Alley Insider, Panther Express, and Music Nation. Co-founders or Gilt Group are a couple of recent Harvard Business School grads. CEO Alexis Maybank was Director of eCommerce at AOL and CMO Alexandra Wilkis Wilson was Retail Operations Manager at Bulgari USA and Sales Forecaster at Louis Vuitton.

Fashionista Co-Founders Alexis and Alexandra

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