Startup brings the dollar store online

What's a dollar store worth? $30 million.

Hollar, a startup trying to bring the dollar store online, raised $30 million in its second major round of funding. The Series B round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers, an early investor in Amazon.

The online marketplace had already raised $12 million in a Series A round. This round brings its total funding to $47.5 million.

That's a lot of money for a site whose listed goods start at $2.

Hollar, which was founded a year ago, sells toys and other fun dollar store products through a website as well as iOS and Anroid apps. The site offers the experience of browsing in a dollar store and finding random products that you didn't know you wanted.

You can get a unicorn pillow pet for $5, a scoop for single servings of cereal for $2, nail polish for $3 or Star Wars playdoh for $6. Prices generally range from $2 to $10.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Hollar offers free shipping for orders over $25 and requires a minimum order of $10.

“We started Hollar to build on the success of the dollar store industry and this opportunity gives us the ability to continue innovating and aggressively grow the business,” CEO David Yeom said in a statement. “Through initiatives like a personalized online shopping experience and expansion into a marketplace offering, Hollar is spreading the unexpected delight of extreme deal retail and changing the way consumers discover deals and stretch their budgets.”

E-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay certainly sell dollar store products, but they often get buried among the flashier items. Hollar instead is making the junk purchase the focus of its store. And investors are betting big on the idea.

“In an industry that is continuing to double down on their brick and mortar presence, Hollar’s rapid growth is showing that consumers also want an online dollar store alternative,” Kleiner Perkins general partner Eric Feng said in a statement. “Hollar is primed to revolutionize the extreme value segment of retail."