The story
Thingd is the parent company of Fancy. Thingd is short for “Thing daemon”. In a 2010 TechCrunch article, CEO Joseph Einhorn summarized the company's mission by stating that, “we want to build a database of everything in the world.” Thingd aims to be the object layer on the web, the platform that identifies images and collects metadata around everything from Gucci sunglasses to comic book collectibles.
Fancy was originally set up as “an invitation-only photo blog where more than 5,000 tastemakers and celebrities upload and tag images of their possessions, as well as the baubles they'd like to own”. It then opened to the public.
In October 2012, comScore announced that Fancy had grown 25% since its launch and was estimated to be worth US$100 million. In February 2013, Fancy acquired the online artisanal foods' vendor Samplrs.com and partnered with Google+ to offer a purchase experience similar to Facebook's Gifts.
Fancy purchased Fancy.com in June 2013 and the company was subsequently rebranded from "The Fancy" to "Fancy." Fancy's valuation reached about $600 million when it received $53 million in funding, according to a July 2013 Bloomberg report. In February 2014, Olivia Palermo, with Fancy, started an e-commerce website. In February 2015, Fancy raised a $20 million Series D strategic funding round, which was led by Mexico's Carlos Slim Domit and the CCC holding company.
In November 2020, Fancy raised money from supporters via crowdfunding site WeFunder.
From Wikipedia’s article on Fancy.com, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4