Milwaukee-based online shopping service Wantable Inc. has raised a $2 million funding round to finance its continued growth, and plans to hire about 50 more employees in the next year.
Wantable delivers personalized makeup, accessories and women’s apparel to tens of thousands of customers through a subscription service. The company was founded by Jalem Getz, who previously founded New Berlin-based costume retailer BuySeasons and sold it to Liberty Media in 2006. He left the $165 million company in 2010 and now serves as president of Wantable.
Wantable raised $800,000 in 2012 and a $1.5 million Series A round in 2014.
There were between two and 10 investors in this latest round of funding, and no lead investor, Getz said. The capital will be used for continued business development and growth, as well as leverage to obtain more traditional financing going forward.
“We believe 2016 will be our first fully profitable year,” he said. “We really feel like we’ve found a niche and a good customer base and we’re just continuing to market and execute on that strategy. We’re early stage, but we’ve now crossed into a much more traditional business.”
In September, Wantable moved into a 16,000-square-foot space at 112 E. Mineral St. in Walker’s Point. Since that time, it has expanded further and will be utilizing the entire available 29,000 square feet of space by May 1.
Wantable currently has 55 employees and six open positions. Getz said he hopes to have more than 100 employees by this time next year, and will use the additional funding for the equipment to support those jobs, as well as additional inventory.
The company’s growth is being driven by its expanding product offerings and customers’ demand for an easier shopping experience, he said.
“We’re in the business of meeting the needs of our customers, kind of changing the platform from traditional brick-and-mortar or department store shopping,” Getz said. “The customer in a traditional retail environment is really working hard to kind of find those gems.”
Wantable has excelled in the growing subscription delivery space, where its competitors include Birchbox and Stitch Fix, by having each customer fill out a very detailed profile on her style and individualizing each box of goods, he said. That personalized shopping experience saves the customer time spent searching, either online or in-person.
“When you don’t know what you want, when you want that personal service, Amazon’s not the place you want,” Getz said.
And as traditional retailers’ recent struggles have shown, consumers are gravitating toward online shopping and away from brick-and-mortar stores.
“All consumers are taking the path of least resistance,” Getz said.
