Responsibility
Yesterday we announced (here and here) that Lot18 raised a Series C financing of $30m. This is the third round of capital we've raised in 12 months, and it brings the total we have raised to nearly $50m.
We're incredibly excited by what we've been able to offer so far and this additional funding will allow us to double down in our core areas: wine, gourmet, and experiences. We work very hard to take these complicated industries and present the best they have to offer to the consumer in a simple and enjoyable way. Providing access to the best in food and wine is our mission, and you'll not see us stray outside of that.
One thing that does not go unnoticed by us (I talked about it when we raised our $10m Series B) is that the last time companies in the wine space raised this much money it was the 90's and it was a disaster. Hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into companies including Wine.com, Virtual Vineyards and Wine Shopper. These coalesced into Wine.com and New Vine Logistics, the former announced its first profitable quarter this year (after 10+ years in business) and the latter went bankrupt last year.
In every single meeting we've ever had with a VC we've been asked "Why will you be different?". Our answer is simple: the laws are different now, and as Snooth nears 1M registered users we proved it was possible to build a wine community online.
These prior failed investments cast a pall over the industry, companies couldn't raise money and tech innovation was stifled over the first decade of this millenium - many VCs won't go near the category, even now. Like music after Napster, wine had a stigma. However, today, a decade later, just as Spotify is doing with music, we're trying to tell the same story a different way.
The food and wine industries are massive, but the road is littered with corpses, and we're acutely aware that there's a heavy burden on our shoulders now, as if we fail, funding for future companies will likely dry up for much of next decade. We take our role in this seriously.