The Honest Company, the all-natural home goods company co-founded by Jessica Alba, is raising $75 million in new venture capital funding at a much lower valuation than the last time around, according to a document filed last week with Delaware regulators.
Top-line details: Honest's new round would be Series E stock priced at around $19.60 per share, which is 57% lower than the price of its Series D shares (sold in the summer of 2015). It also would slash the Los Angeles-based company's valuation from around $1.7 billion to below $1 billion. An Honest Co. spokeswoman declined comment.
Caveat: The Delaware document (uncovered by CBInsights) is only a share authorization, not an indication that the shares have necessarily been sold. A venture capitalist not previously involved with Honest told Axios that he had seen the deal, but it's also possible that it would be done only by insiders.
Fundraising history: Honest Co. has raised over $220 million in funding since 2001, from firms like General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Fidelity, Wellington Management and Hartford Financial.
Context: Honest Co. was floated last year as a possible acquisition target of Unilever, which was seeking inroads into both the "green" household goods market and direct-to-consumer channel. But that disappeared once Unilever instead agreed to buy both Seventh Generation (for between $600m-$700m) and Dollar Shave Club (for $1 billion). Earlier this year, Honest Co. co-founder Brian Lee stepped down as CEO, following a controversy over certain product ingredients, and was replaced by former Clorox executive Nick Vlahos.
