Jessica Alba and Brian Lee's startup The Honest Co. is making some moves in preparation for an initial public offering.
The Santa Monica, California, company, which sells natural and eco-friendly baby products, just raised $70 million and is valued at almost $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Related: How Michael Jordan Made His $1 Billion
The Series C round of funding comes from several VC investors including Wellington Management Company, Institutional Venture Partners, Iconiq Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and General Catalyst Partners, along with some anonymous public financial institutions.
Before this round, The Honest Co. had secured $52 million in funding. The company employs 275 people.
The company is expecting to make $150 million in revenue this year, three times the revenue it brought in last year. According to one of The Honest Co.'s early investors, Jeremy Liew, about 80% of that revenue comes from customers who receive a monthly delivery of diapers and other products.
One of the many diapers that The Honest Co. sells.
Since founding The Honest Co. in 2011, Alba has been able to leverage her celebrity to throw the company in the limelight, garnering attention for her environmental and social goals. Like Toms and Warby Parker, The Honest Co. donates some of its products and revenue, meriting a B Corp certification from nonprofit group B Lab. (B Corps are also known as benefit corporations.)
"I wanted clean, safe, effective products that were affordable and beautifully designed, and I couldn't find that in the marketplace," Alba said on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." "There wasn't really a family brand that spoke to me as a young mom."
Related: Mamma Mia! You Won't Believe How Much Money ABBA Turned Down to Reunite
The startup also sells natural cleaning products.
The Honest Co. is also looking to expand to other countries like China, England, and Australia. Currently, The Honest Co. ships only to the U.S. and Canada.
All of these moves are aimed at prepping the startup for a coming IPO, which has yet to be scheduled.
“We believe being a public company is the best path for us going forward, and it’s good to get that validation early on,” Lee told The Wall Street Journal. “I can’t say when that will be, but we are definitely starting to think and act like a public company.”
This article originally appeared in Business Insider.
Read more at Business Insider:
- Here Are The Best Consumer 3D Printers On The Market
- Obama Has A Very Impressive Diet, According to Australia’s Ex-Foreign Minister
- This Startup Is Now Worth Almost A Billion Dollars By Just Focusing On Online Developer Training