Sustainable sneaker maker Allbirds closed a $100 million Series E funding round last week. Franklin Templeton led the new round and was joined by T. Rowe Price, Baillie Gifford, TDM Growth Partners and Rockefeller Capital Management.
The company — founded in 2016 — is now valued at $1.7 billion, just above its $1.4 billion valuation two years ago. Trendy with tech professionals in Silicon Valley, Allbirds also raised $27 million earlier this year in a Series D round that ended early because of the pandemic. To date, the company has raised more than $200 million.
Allbirds, which released its first running shoe earlier this year, announced a partnership with Adidas in May to produce a sports performance shoe with “the lowest ever carbon footprint.” Sneakers are hot, with retail platform Goat Group recently closing a similar investment round with a valuation of $1.75 billion.
Allbirds by the Numbers:
$95 — Price of its flagship Wool Runner shoe.
17,000 — Downloads within 24 hours of its new app launching last week.
21 — Allbirds brick-and-mortar stores with plans to scale up.
