Across the industry, economic changes and higher interest rates have made fundraising a much harder experience for many fashion brands. But the DTC activewear brand Vuori doesn’t seem to be one of them.
On Friday afternoon, the brand announced an $825 million funding round led by General Atlantic and Stripes. General Atlantic invests in major consumer brands like Athletic Brewing Company and Shein, while Stripes is the investor behind brands like On Running, Erewhon and Khaite.
The $825 million is going on top of the significant pile of investment Vuori has already accumulated. In 2021, Vuori raised a $400 million round from Japanese investor SoftBank. At the time, it was the largest investment round raised by a private apparel brand — Vuori has now doubled that amount. Vuori was valued at $4 billion at the time of the SoftBank investment, but its new valuation puts it at $5.5 billion.
“As we continue to drive momentum, growth and market share gains, we are grateful to have the additional partnership of these leading organizations,” Vuori founder and CEO Joe Kudla said in a statement.
While the funding is the largest for a private apparel brand, Vuori may not remain private for much longer. In late 2023, Bloomberg reported that the company was considering an IPO sometime in 2024. With only a month and a half left in the year, it’s more likely that a potential IPO will happen next year. However, the original Bloomberg report cited sources saying Vuori’s plans could change.
Vuori grew its revenue at a rate of around 250% per year soon after its launch in 2015. Since the SoftBank funding, the company has expanded internationally, especially in Europe and Asia. Vuori plans to surpass 100 stores around the world by 2026 — it opened its first international flagship store in London in early November.
It’s also notable that Vuori has amassed such a large amount of funding at a time when most apparel brands are reporting a much harder time gathering funding. Glossy has reported investor horror stories of brands struggling to find funding. Some have noted that AI is the only thing that’s getting investors to cough up the amount of money that was common in the late 2010s.
Andrew Ferrer, managing director at General Atlantic, said in a statement that Vuori’s large and loyal customer base was a deciding factor in the investment. That matches up with what brands are saying about investors prioritizing immediate returns and profitability over the grow-now, get-profitable-later mentality that was common in previous years.
“We have followed Vuori for many years, as Joe and the team have thoughtfully built an enduring, generational and category-defining brand,” Ferrer said. “Vuori has significant whitespace to expand globally, supported by long-term tailwinds in athleisure and a large addressable market across women’s and men’s activewear apparel.”
