Consumer / OtherNew York City

Warby Parker

Consumer / Other · New York, NY

Direct-to-consumer eyewear company. NYC. First Round Capital + General Catalyst. IPO Sept 2021 at $6B. Co-founded at Wharton. Disrupted optical industry.

Founded

Region

New York City

Investors

People

About NYC

New York is the country's financial capital, and its fintech and media companies grow directly out of Wall Street and the publishing/broadcast industries that were already there — not a separate tech scene bolted on. Columbia and NYU anchor the research side of a city dense enough that consumer-tech companies can test at a scale most regions can't.

Related Analysis

EssilorLuxottica Controls 80% of Luxury Eyewear Manufacturing and Owns the Stores That Sell It. A $10 Frame Retails for $231. The Operator of This Site Tried to Fix Part of That Problem in 2000 — Seventeen Years Before the Technology to Do It Actually Existed.

Region Stats

Total firms 238

VC / investors 79

Companies 128

Schools 31

Known For

Fintech

Media

Consumer Tech