The Sill is a technology company.
The Sill has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round.
The Sill has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
The Sill is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand specializing in houseplants, plant care products, and accessories, sold primarily through ecommerce with a focus on education and accessibility for beginners.[1][5] Founded in 2012 by Eliza Blank, it serves urban millennials and new gardeners by offering curated plants like pothos, snake plants, and fiddle-leaf figs, alongside pots, soil, fertilizers, and a monthly subscription box, solving the problem of making indoor (and now outdoor) greenery approachable amid modern urban living.[1][2][3] The company has achieved eight-figure revenue, raised $5.3M in funding, and employs around 64 people, with strong growth through content marketing, SEO, workshops, and upselling tactics that boost retention and average order value.[3][4]
In a strategic pivot post-pandemic, The Sill closed its 12 retail stores (previously in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and Bethesda) to focus exclusively on ecommerce, expanding from the houseplant market into the larger $11B outdoor gardening space under new CEO Adam Smith (former Fast Growing Trees CEO).[2]
Eliza Blank founded The Sill in 2012 at age 26 in borrowed office space in New York City's Chinatown, inspired by her first "bleak" adult apartment and her Filipino immigrant mother's gardening tradition, which connected her to family roots and combated homesickness.[1][5] The core idea—"plants make us happier, healthier humans"—emerged from personal experience with nature's mood-boosting effects, leading Blank to launch an online store that made houseplants accessible via education, care guides, and chic pots.[1][2][5]
Early traction built a cult following among millennials through DTC sales and the first brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan's Chinatown in 2015, expanding to seven locations.[1] The pandemic accelerated customer life-stage shifts (e.g., moving to homes with yards), prompting a pivot to outdoor gardening about a year ago, with Blank stepping down as CEO for Adam Smith to lead the ecommerce-only evolution.[2]
The Sill rides the DTC boom of the 2010s, leveraging ecommerce tech (SEO, popups, subscriptions) to normalize online plant buying and fuel millennials' houseplant obsession amid urban isolation.[2][3] Timing aligns with post-pandemic life shifts—city exodus to yards—expanding from a $1B houseplant market to $11B outdoors, where only 10% of sales are ecommerce, creating ripe opportunity via digital education over physical retail.[2]
It influences the ecosystem by humanizing DTC: blending community (workshops), content marketing, and data-driven upselling to build loyalty in lifestyle brands, proving adaptability as founders age and markets evolve.[2][3]
The Sill's ecommerce pivot under Adam Smith positions it to capture novice gardeners entering peak life stages, scaling via subscriptions and education in an underserved online outdoor market.[2] Trends like remote work persistence, wellness-through-nature, and DTC maturation will shape growth, potentially amplifying influence through tech integrations (e.g., AR plant visualization) or partnerships.
As it evolves from urban houseplants to nationwide gardening, The Sill exemplifies how DTC brands thrive by mirroring customer lifecycles—bridging people and plants for happier, greener lives.[1][2][5]
The Sill has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
The Sill's investors include Arrive, CrunchFund, Kindred Ventures, Pioneer Square Labs, Quiet Capital.
The Sill has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $3.0M Seed in October 2017.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2017 | $3.0M Seed | Arrive, CrunchFund, Kindred Ventures, Pioneer Square Labs, Quiet Capital |