Shear success
Today, Brown and Zwillinger run Allbirds from San Francisco, the majority of investors are American and most of its footwear is made in Italy — but the company continues to use Merino wool from New Zealand.
Allbirds, the woollen sneaker company co-founded in 2014 by former Kiwi footballer Tim Brown (pictured), has been valued at $2 .15b.
Allbirds, the trendy woollen sneakermaker co-founded by New Zealander Tim Brown, has raised US$50 million ($72.5m), valuing the entire company at US$1.4 billion ($2.15b).
The funding round was led by T Rowe Price Investment Management, with Fidelity Management & Research Company and Tiger Global.
It brings total investment to US$75m. Existing investors include actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Allbirds — which offered no financials or sales statistics yesterday — says some of the money will be spent on research and development of sustainable materials. The company has stores in San Francisco and New York, and sells to other markets online. Some of the funds will be used to open a new store in London and further retail expansion.
Ex-All White Brown co-founded his venture in 2014 with a Kickstarter campaign for shoes made from Merino wool with a vegetable oilbased polyurethane insole — at the time called Woollen Runners.
Brown had spent two years devising the shoes with San Francisco-based biotech engineer and renewable materials specialist Joey Zwillinger.
The pair hit their Kickstarter crowdfunding target — a modest US$120,000 — within five days.
Soon after, Allbirds raised more than US$2.7m in a Series A investment round led by New York-based venture capital fund Lerer Hippeau Ventures, with high-profile investors including Ben Lerer, co-founder of digital media company Thrillist, and David Gilboa, co-founder of online eyewear company Warby Parker.
By 2017, with 50 staff and sales about to hit 1 million pairs of shoes, a Series B round attracted US$24m, with new investors including Maveron — a fund developed by Howard Schultz, founder and chief executive of Starbucks.
Today, Brown and Zwillinger run Allbirds from San Francisco, the majority of investors are American and most of its footwear is made in Italy — but the company continues to use Merino wool from New Zealand. The company is now diversifying. In August, it released Sugar Zeffers — a pair of $60 jandals made using sugar cane and recycled polyester.
The company also has a new line of shoes made from eucalyptus pulp.