The Clymb announced that it closed more than $2 million in Series A funding, led by the Oregon Angel Fund and Walden Venture Capital, and joined by J Allard and individual investors.


The financing will further elevate The Clymb’s position as the leader in flash sales for the active outdoor lifestyle market and support its mission to inspire human-powered adventure by delivering exclusive savings on gear and experiences.

 

“The past 12 months have validated the concept and exceeded all of our expectations in terms of membership growth, engagement and brand partner support,” said J Allard, investor and director
This round of funding enables The Clymb to expand the team and innovate at a pace that matches our ambition.” 

 

The company will continue to also provide marketing opportunities and valuable insights to its partner brands. The Clymb plans to accelerate growth with:


  • An expanded network of brand partners to support a broader range of outdoor experiences
  • Enhanced site features including social shopping tools to share experiences and gear tips through social media channels while earning rewards
  • Hand-selected offers on local and global adventures

The Clymb has grown tremendously since launching the first-ever private sale site dedicated to the $46 billion active outdoor lifestyle market in 2009. Today, the company has:



  •  A membership base of several hundred thousand, growing by thousands each day thanks to a high percentage of member referrals
  • More than 1 million monthly unique visits from active and prospective members
  • Partnerships with more than 150 leading outdoor brands, including ArcTeryx, Burton, KEEN Footwear, Mountain Hardwear and Salomon

The Clymb is carving out a niche vertical in the rapidly growing flash sale market — predicted to reach $6 billion by 2015 (BIA/Kelsey). The Clymb is led by an expert team with a seasoned history in the active lifestyle space and has recruited talent with experience from adidas, backcountry.com, KEEN, Levi’s, Nike, Salomon and The North Face


 

The Clymb is led by:

 


  • Cofounder and Chief Merchandising Officer Cec Annett is a former rocky mountain ski instructor who went on to lead Airwalk’s category expansion in the 1990s and later became vice president of adidas North America.
  • Cofounder and Chief Communications Officer Kelly Dachtler is a lifelong cyclist and snowboarder who has held executive creative roles for Merrell and Liz Claiborne, and was instrumental in the multi-billion dollar success of the Mossimo brand for Target Corp.
  • Director and Investor J Allard is a technology visionary and thought leader best known for creating the Xbox and was most recently the SVP of Microsoft, and Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division.
  • Director and Investor Art Berliner founded Walden Venture Capital in 1974. Based in San Francisco, Walden is a Sprout Stage investor focusing on digital media and cloud services. Walden’s portfolio includes Pandora, Soundhound, Glam.com and Image Vision Labs.
  • Director and Investor Drew Smith is an active angel investor, representing the Oregon Angel Fund, and has been involved in over 50 angel and venture capital investments. Drew is a former managing director at Intel Capital and associate partner at McKinsey & Company.