Bonobos, an online retailer that first built its reputation on better-fitting pants for men, has raised $16.4 million in a new round of funding. The round was led by Nordstrom, who will begin selling some of Bonobos's pants and shorts at 20 of its department stores and at Nordstrom.com as part of its investment.
Bonobos's expansion offline is an unusual direction for an online-only brand to take. Most established U.S. fashion companies in the U.S. and western Europe are expanding their online businesses, not their offline entities. Ralph Lauren-owned label Club Monaco and 3.1 Phillip Lim only established online stores in the past month, as examples, while Paris-based shoe designer Christian Louboutin expanded its digital footprint with the launch of an ecommerce shop in Europe this week. Bonobos, as the company noted in a press release, evolved in the reverse, launching itself on the web, building to scale and then extending offline.
Bonobos was founded in 2007 by Andy Dunn and has since grown its offerings beyond pants to shirts, suits, shoes, sportswear and other categories of men's apparel. The New York-based startup raised a Series C round totalling $18.5 million in December 2010 led by Accel Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.