Fashion has a new crop of billion-dollar babies. Designer e-commerce marketplace Farfetch is the latest to see its valuation creep up to that magic number, after having raised $86 million in its latest round of funding. This brings the total raised by the eight-year-old company to more than $195 million. The round was led by Digital Sky Technologies, while existing investors Condé Nast International and Vitruvian Partners participated as well. JustFab, which raised $85 million in August, is said to be valued at $1 billion as well, while Etsy, the go-to destination for handmade and vintage items and crafts, is estimated to be worth $2 billion. Rumors that flash-sale pioneer Gilt plans to go public have been circulating for years, but industry experts predict that Etsy will be the next “big” initial public offering in the space. “Etsy has a great story. It’s growing fast, the timing is right because the markets are really frothy, and they have this really compelling story about the implosion of eBay,” Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, said. A bubble could be looming, however. “The last time the Nasdaq was this high was 2000,” Mulpuru said. “[That] says it all.” Bubble or not, it’s the $1
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