Acquired by Coupang in late 2023 for ~$500M; shareholders wiped out and the company delisted and liquidated
The rise & fall
8 moments · 2007–2023
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2007
🌱
2007
Founded in London
José Neves sets out to put the world's luxury boutiques online in one marketplace.
Wikipedia
2015
🦄
2015
Joins the unicorn club
A funding round values the luxury marketplace above $1B, making it one of Europe's most celebrated startups.
TechCrunch
Sep 2018
Sep 2018
NYSE IPO
Farfetch lists in New York, giving European fashion-tech its marquee public company.
CNBC
2021
📈
2021
The peak: ~$23B$23B
The pandemic e-commerce boom carries the market value to roughly $23B in early 2021.
Bloomberg
2022
2022
China and Russia shocks
COVID lockdowns hammer its key China market, it pulls out of Russia, and losses keep mounting; the stock craters more than 90%.
Bloomberg
2022
💔
2022
Slips out of the club
The slide drags Farfetch's market value below $1B.
Bloomberg
2021–23
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2021–23
Glassdoor reviews charted the slide from inside: employees described a two-year pay-and-bonus freeze and waves of layoffs — one round topping 700 people — with many saying leadership's reassurances about runway held right up until the sale.
Dec 2023
🤝
Dec 2023
Acquired by Coupang for ~$500M$500M
The Korean e-commerce giant picks up the business in a rescue deal; shareholders and noteholders recover nothing, and the listed company is delisted and liquidated.
Bloomberg
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Farfetch was a London-based online marketplace for luxury fashion, connecting hundreds of boutiques with shoppers worldwide — one of Europe's most celebrated tech startups, which reached a roughly $23B market value in early 2021 after its 2018 NYSE IPO. Then losses mounted, COVID hit its key China market, and the stock cratered more than 90%.
Source: Bloomberg / Quartz / Digital Commerce 360 (London-based luxury-fashion marketplace, VC-backed unicorn from ~2015; ~$23B market value at its early-2021 peak; China and Russia shocks plus mounting losses collapsed it; Coupang acquired its assets for ~$500M in Dec 2023, with equity and noteholders recovering nothing)
