Subscription E-Commerce Market Map: 57 Startups In One Infographic

Subscription e-commerce as a category has had a rocky history, with funding falling in 2016 but deal count up in Q2’16. Amidst the ups and downs, at least five subscription companies died in 2015, including Beachmint which focused on celebrity-curated products.

However, with Unilever’s acquisition of subscription razor startup Dollar Shave Club for $1B in July 2016, the category may have regained some momentum. The space still includes well-funded startups in various verticals, including Harry’s in razors ($287M in disclosed funding), Ipsy in makeup ($103M), BarkBox in pet items ($82M), and more.

To understand the current market landscape, we used CB Insights data to create a market map of subscription e-commerce startups. The market map includes only startups offering subscriptions for physical goods — either of their own items, or curated boxes of other brands’ items. We excluded food subscription startups, such as Blue Apron, and subscriptions for services or experiences, like Classpass. The 57 companies on our market map have raised over $1.4B in total.

View the infographic below, and scroll down to read category descriptions, along with select funding and investor information for included startups. This graphic is not meant to be exhaustive of companies in the industry; a full list of e-commerce subscription startups is available to our clients.

Click image to enlarge. Infographic includes only private companies.

Category breakdown

• Beauty & cosmetics – These startups provide curated subscription boxes of their own or other brands’ beauty items. Birchbox and Ipsy are the leaders in the space, with $87M and $103M in funding, respectively.
• Beer & wine – Subscription shipments of beer and wine.
• Child & baby items – Subscriptions for children’s items, such as Bitsbox, which focuses on teaching kids to code, and Rockets of Awesome, which offers a subscription for children’s clothing.
• Coffee & tea – Curated subscription boxes of coffee and tea.
• Leisure –  Loot Crate is a relatively well-funded company in this diverse category, with $19M in funding for subscriptions of geek and gaming pop culture items. Other players include Datebox, which delivers items for a date each month to couples, and Cairn, which serves outdoor enthusiasts with boxes including goods like energy bars, headlamps, and firestarters.
• Men’s apparel – Companies such as Bombfell ($1M raised) and Five Four Club (bootstrapped) ship male-targeted boxes of apparel and accessories.
• Pet items – Startups offering scheduled deliveries for dog toys, like BarkBox, or healthy pet food, like The Farmer’s Dog.
• Personal care – These startups generally produce and provide subscription refills for personal care items. Harry’s offer razors, The Honest Company provides subscription bundles of various personal care items, Quip and Goby both target toothbrushes, Lola offers organic cotton tampons, and Monthly Gift sends women monthly feminine care packages.
• Vitamins & supplements – Subscription refills for vitamins and supplements. For example Nootrobox ($3M in funding) focuses on “body hacking” supplements, while Y Combinator graduate Multiply Labs aims to provide personally customized supplements on a recurring basis.
• Women’s apparel – This category includes the most well-funded company in our infographic, the beleaguered TechStyle Fashion Group (formerly JustFab), with $300M in funding, which aims to offer members personally curated selections of apparel and accessories each month. Other companies include Stitch Fix, AdoreMe, which focuses on lingerie, and Gwynnie Bee, which targets the plus-size market.

Company list

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