AUSTIN, TEXAS — Tiff’s Treats on July 8 said it has raised $15 million, $5 million more than targeted, in an investment round to fund the company’s accelerating growth.

The Austin-based company, which claimed it launched the concept of warm cookie delivery, raised the funds from investors including Dirk Nowitzki, a retired star of the National Basketball Association, and Kendra Scott, a jewelry designer.

Tiff’s Treats was launched in 1999 by Tiffany Taylor and Leon Chen, then students at the University of Texas at Austin. The company said the two started with “$20, a cell phone and a dream.” Tiff’s Treats operates 59 stores in Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina and employs more than 1,400. Customers may order the company’s products online, with the Tiff’s Treats app or by phone, and baked-to-order cookies are delivered to homes or offices in about an hour. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company hired 500 employees this spring. Also during the pandemic, the company said it has committed more than $1 million to its employees in bonuses, pay raises and a new paid time off benefit for all hourly employees.

Over the past five years the company has raised $50 million in funding, a period of aggressive growth.

“We’re thrilled to welcome our new investors including Kendra Scott and Dirk Nowitzki,” said Mr. Chen, chief executive officer at Tiff’s Treats. “Kendra, a hugely influential entrepreneur and philanthropist, is someone we’ve known for several years and have been a big fan of both personally and professionally. We’re thrilled to have her join our team.”

On Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, Tiff’s Treats partnered with Kendra Scott to deliver jewelry pieces along with cookies.

Ms. Scott is an Austin resident. Mr. Nowitzki played more than 20 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks and lives in Dallas.

Earlier investors in Tiff’s Treats include private equity firms CIC Partners, headed by a former top executive of Pizza Hut; Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital; executives from Starbucks and Whole Foods Market; and supermodel Brooklyn Decker and her retired tennis-star husband Andy Roddick.