Wine.Com’s $140 million funding foundation takes #1 position in WII’s wine venture funding series

Wine.Com is truly the last company standing that grew out of the early bleeding edge of wine e-commerce. The current Wine.Com — and its total funding —  is an outgrowth of eVineyard whose components along the way include Virtual Vineyards, WineShopper.Com, and a previous wine.com operation purchased by eVineyard..

 

In 2017 company statements, the current version of Wine.Com says it is the largest online retailer in the U.S. with more than $100 million in annual sales.

 

That revenue is built on more than $140 million in funding, at least half of which was wiped off the books in a 2001 Chapter 11 bankruptcy that was filed long before the current management and operations.

 

That means that my previous article listing Coravin as #1 was not accurate because it was based just on the post-bankruptcy fundings of operations and assets acquired by the current Wine.Com. However, the foundation of the current business was clearly established in the Jurassic Era of e-c0mmerce.

 

As a result, when all of the previous fundings are summed from all of the constituent companies that make up Wine.Com, it moves into the #1 position in wine venture funding with at least $140 million — more than twice that of #2 Coravin.

 

Clearly, in that previous article, I had not thought critically enough about that when I put together the list of the top vino-recipients of venture capital.

 

That changed when I remembered a column I wrote for TheStreet.Com back in 1999: “Geerlings & Wading Into a Wine-on-the-Web Swamp.” And that prompted me to take another look at how much money (and a Chapter 11) it took to get Wine.Com where it is today.

 

Below is the best financial archaeology I could muster in digging out and dusting off the bones. It is still incomplete due to the factors cited in the table disclaimer.

Sachs Asset Management Private Credit Group

 

 

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