Warby Parker gets its unicorn horn

Friday, May 1, 2015

Add hip eyewear startup Warby Parker to Fortune’s Unicorn List: the company has raised a new funding round of $100 million that pushes its valuation over the $1 billion mark.

The new valuation of $1.2 billion, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes after a round led by T. Rowe Price, the publicly traded money management firm that had revenues of nearly $4 billion last year. T. Rowe Price has invested recently in other notable tech “unicorns” including Flipkart and Lookout. The founders of those two companies—Sachin and Binny Bansal and John Hering, respectively—have all landed on Fortune‘s 40 Under 40 list in the past few years.

We named David Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal, the Warby Parker founders, “Ones to Watch” in 2012.

Warby Parker launched in 2010, selling designer eyeglasses for under $100, with a “one for one” model that the founders said was directly influenced by Toms and its founder, Blake Mycoskie.

Source: Fortune (link opens in a new window)

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