Tamara Mellon
“Can a founder-led DTC luxury footwear brand use accessible pricing and embedded consumer financing to capture the modern luxury market without traditional retail mark-ups?”
Founded2016
HQLos Angeles, CA, USA
FoundersTamara Mellon, Jill Layfield
Total raised~$90M
Latest roundSeries C, 2019
IndustryE-commerce / DTC brand
The story
Founded in 2016 as a direct-to-consumer luxury footwear brand by Jimmy Choo co-founder Tamara Mellon, the company disrupted traditional luxury retail by selling handcrafted Italian shoes at below-market prices via a DTC model. After rapid 130%+ sales growth in 2018, it raised $50M Series C in 2019 to fund retail and manufacturing expansion. The embedded finance angle is consumer-facing: BNPL via Affirm at checkout to reduce purchase friction on $400–$800 price-point shoes, and BILL for back-office AP automation linked to QuickBooks.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2016
Tamara Mellon and Jill Layfield co-founded the direct-to-consumer luxury footwear brand in Los Angeles, targeting modern luxury women with Italy-crafted shoes at accessible prices.· pivot
2018
Sales grew 136% year-over-year; company adopted BILL for accounts payable automation with QuickBooks integration.· banking
2019
Raised $50M Series C led by Centricus, bringing total raised to ~$90M, to fund manufacturing innovation and retail expansion.· ipo
2021
Launched Affirm buy-now-pay-later financing at checkout across product pages, offering 0% APR installment options.· lending
The stack
Accounting gap: minor