OR-based Lucy.com "will get" $28M from four firms in
"one of the biggest rounds of venture capital funding" in OR
history, according to Andy Dworkin of the Portland
OREGONIAN. Lucy.com CEO & co-Founder Sue Levin said that
the money will be used to run the women's athletic apparel
site "through 2000 as it adds staff, relocates and beefs up
its computer systems." The "biggest chunk" of the funding
will pay for "Lucy's mass-marketing campaign, a $15 million-
plus brand-building effort that will help determine the
entrepreneurial company's success." The four firms that
"chipped in" were "led by" CA-based Oak Investment Partners
and WA-based Maveron, a two-year-old company co-founded by
Starbucks Coffee Chair Howard Schultz. The other partners
are Sutter Hill Ventures and Foundation Capital, which last
summer combined to give Lucy.com two rounds of investment
capital worth $7.65M. Levin "would not say how much each
firm contributed or just what ownership share" they received
in Lucy.com, but she did say ownership "is spread out pretty
equally among the investor group and the employees" and the
company's founders. Schultz, on Lucy.com: "What we saw this
Christmas was so much waste and so much noise from Internet
retailers trying to build a brand through TV advertising"
(Portland OREGONIAN, 1/18).
