As millennials are getting older, NYC startup Zola wants to capitalize on the generation’s impending nuptials. Zola is a digital wedding-gift registry aiming to take on traditional registry outfits such as Macy’s, Williams-Sonoma and Amazon.
Today, the company announced a $10 million Series B funding round led by Canvas Venture Fund.
Zola’s platform lets couples build personalized pages, and includes features such as group gifting and virtually exchanged gifts. While couples have the option to register for traditional wedding presents like blenders, china and linens, they can also request more unique items such as Blue Apron subscriptions, artwork and wine tastings. Once a gift is purchased by a guest, couples can also decide when they want the gift delivered. Zola even offers curated gift collections such as “Easy Entertaining” or “Create a Cozy Home” for couples who are overwhelmed by creating a registry from scratch.
As millennial couples are getting married later than previous generations, and 70 percent of them live together before they get married, these types of gifts are more practical than the standard home goods wedding gift. Today, 78 percent of couples would rather spend money on an experience than a physical present.
While traditional wedding registries have customers register with one retailer, Zola allows customers to build a registry of gifts from more than 250 different brands. Zola has also rolled out an iPhone app that essentially functions as a Tinder for wedding gifts, allowing couples to create and manage their wedding registries from anywhere.
The company was founded in 2013 by Shan-Lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi, former Gilt Groupe executives, as well as Kevin Ryan, cofounder of Gilt, Business Insider and Mongo DB. Since the company’s launch, 100,000 couples have registered for wedding gifts using Zola. Zola expects to sell $40 million gifts this year, which is an $8 million increase from last year.
“The most important form of marketing for Zola is our recently married couples who tell newly engaged friends they used and loved their Zola registry,” said Zola cofounder, Shan-lyn Ma, in a statement. “It’s remarkable how strongly Zola has resonated with its millennial users in just two years, and our couples are telling us exactly what they want to see Zola do next.”
Zola is attempting to shake up a $300 billion wedding industry by being flexible and customizable, creating an entirely new registry experience for modern couples. Zola currently has 35 employees, which is led by seasoned executives from companies like Google, J.Crew and Williams-Sonoma.
