Joy Raises $60M in Series B to Extend their Modern Wedding Planning Platform for All Life Events
The funding round was led by General Catalyst, with Nordstrom, HP Board Member Stacy Brown-Philpot joining Joy's Board of Directors
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Joy, wedding planning and universal registry platform, announces $60 million in Series B funding, bringing the company's total funding to $106.5 million. The round was led by General Catalyst, with Managing Director Niko Bonatsos and Co-Founder Joel Cutler also joining Joy's Board as Observers.
The brand has grown rapidly year-over-year with 3x as many U.S. couples planning their weddings on Joy and using its all-in-one registry. Wedding gifts going through the registry has also 4x, as the platform offers a seamless solution to receive gifts, experiences, zero-fee cash funds and charities. Users can add items from anywhere online and track all of their items on Joy.
"I work with a number of different startups and retailers, and Joy's ability to understand consumer pain points and provide simple solutions is remarkable. The success is reflected in Joy's explosive growth, and I am thrilled to be joining their Board of Directors for this next phase," says Stacy Brown-Philpot, GC Catalyst Advisor, Former Taskrabbit CEO and Nordstrom, HP, Noom and StockX Board Member.
"We started Joy for our family, building wedding planning tools and a reimagined registry, but we have grown far beyond that," says Vishal Joshi, Co-Founder and CEO of Joy. "This financing will accelerate our mission to help the world celebrate better, using intuitive technology and design to make planning the most memorable events of your life more joyful."
"I am a firm believer that forward-thinking tech makes our lives better, and Joy is a real example of that. The company's beautiful and smart tools aim to greatly improve wedding planning, and now its flexible e-commerce platform is reinventing registry shopping. Joy's creative approach and significant growth is a clear indicator that they are filling a need in the industry. We look forward to seeing the Joy team work toward achieving their goals with this funding," says Niko Bonastos, Managing Director of General Catalyst.
"Joy offers a modern platform for centuries old consumer experience - weddings - and an inflection point for thinking about how we plan and shop around life's most meaningful events. The industry is changing and competitors aren't evolving with it; what spoke to me about Joy is that they always put their users first to be ahead of the game," says Joel Cutler, Co-Founder and Managing Director of General Catalyst.
The new funding will enable Joy to double in headcount and grow its investment in product, continuing to build on its existing technology while delivering new user requested solutions. Listening and making strategic product decisions based on user feedback continues to be one of Joy's top priorities. Joy is dedicated to building the best planning platform for its users not only for their weddings, but also for all of their life's celebratory occasions.
"At Gusto, we are very thoughtful about the needs of every company whether they are big or small. I can say Joy brings the same level of thoughtfulness and innovation to their platform so that every couple, no matter their personal preferences or budget, can have the wedding they want. There are so many different levels with which to communicate to guests and design a hyper customizable registry - I love seeing this intense level of customization that was missing from the wedding space. I would've loved to have something like this for my wedding planning," says Tomer London, Co-Founder of Gusto.
"With so many changes going on in the wedding industry over the past few years, Joy seems like a clear leader to me. They understand every wedding is unique and their tools allow you to have your wedding and registry your way, and that felt extremely compelling to me," says Jonathan Newman, CEO of Sweetgreen.
"What got me most excited about Joy is not only their great product, but also the opportunity which lies ahead of them. They have just started monetizing their wedding business with several other revenue streams still to come," says Gokul Rajaram, Doordash Executive and Board Member of Pinterest, Coinbase and Trade Desk. "On top of this, Joy is currently being used to plan more than just weddings in over 150 countries. Growing a consumer company that can build a new way to celebrate all life events globally is exciting to me."
"Weddings (and other celebrations) have been going on for ages, at the same time, the technological innovation we have seen in other established industries like transportation, lodging and food service over the past few years haven't been applied to the event industry at the same pace. The founding team is so good at building solutions for problems that a couple does not even know they are going to face in their wedding planning. Such customer empathy is what made me excited to be part of Joy's journey," says Youngme Moon, Professor at Harvard Business School and Board Member of Mastercard, Rakuten, Unilever, Warby Parker and Sweetgreen.
"Over my career, I've had the privilege to work with world class brands and understood their desire to create global platforms of growth and commercially-exciting, content-rich destinations for the customers of today and tomorrow," says Marigay McKee, Co-Founder of Fernbrook Capital, Aston Martin Board Member and Former Harrods and Saks Fifth Avenue Executive. "Today we celebrate the fusion of heritage and technical modernity with Joy, which has set out to disrupt the wedding and life milestone market, from showers, birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations of joy. Marrying the elegance and ease of the process with the technical horsepower of the Joy platform, this is a solution and edit for event planning everywhere."
Anne Van Gorp
[email protected]
Joy is a software company with a mission to help the world celebrate better together, combining beautiful design with intuitive technology to make planning the most memorable events of your life - joyful.
Joy offers personalized events websites with an accompanying mobile app, all-in-one registry, intuitive planning tools, guest communications, online or printed Save the Dates and invitations. Joy was founded by former tech industry execs, launching in 2016 through Y Combinator.
Visit withjoy.com and follow @withjoy for more.
SOURCE Joy
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