A recent round of investments for women’s online retailer Nasty Gal Inc. (Los Angeles) delivered $16 million to the 9-year-old company, most of it earmarked for growing physical retail locations.
Nasty Gal, known for its edgy apparel, opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Los Angeles November 2014 and will open a second location, in Santa Monica, Calif., this spring, according to The Wall Street Journal, which noted that, similar to other online retailers, such as Bonobos Inc. (New York) and Moda Operandi Inc. (New York), Nasty Gal is seeking to supplement online sales with physical locations.
Retail veteran Ron Johnson, who helped build Apple’s (Cupertino, Calif.) chain of retail stores and served as ceo of JCPenney Co. (Ft. Worth, Texas), is one of Nasty Gal’s primary investors and led the current round of financing. Johnson’s investment helped the brand emerge from a turbulent 2014, during which it laid off 10 percent of its employees.