Goldman Sachs leads $40m Mister Spex round

Harriet Bailey
08 January 2015

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Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division has led a $40m series-C funding round for online eyewear company Mister Spex.

Existing investors Scottish Equity Partners, XAnge and DN Capital also committed to the series-C funding round.

Goldman Sachs's investment sees it take a reported 20% stake in the business, which has now raised a total of almost $70m over three funding rounds.

Mister Spex stated it plans to strengthen its position in Europe and expand internationally following the latest funding round. It also plans to improve its logistics network with the fresh capital, as well as increase the number of partnerships it has with independent opticians.

Previous funding
DN Capital first raised a €7m series-A funding round in September 2010, seeing investment from DN Capital, XAnge, Grazia Equity, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Point Nine Capital (formerly Team Europe Ventures) and Astutia Ventures.

In May 2013, SEP joined a €16m series-B round, which saw XAnge and DN Capital reinvest in the business. The new funding was earmarked for expanding the number of partnerships the company had with independent opticians. It also planned to grow internationally, opening online shops for the French, Spanish and Swedish markets.

In July that year, Mister Spex acquired two online eyewear stores: Lensstore and Loveeyewear. The company's existing backers committed additional capital to finance the transaction.

Company
Founded in 2007, Mister Spex is a Berlin-based company offering a range of prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses through its website. It also has a team of trained opticians available to advise customers by phone or email.

Mister Spex generated revenues of €47m in 2013 and has around one million Europe-based customers. It has 300 employees operating from its sites in Germany, Austria, France and Spain.

People
Dirk Graber is CEO and founder of Mister Spex, while Mirko Caspar is co-managing director. Andrew Wolff is managing director and head of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and co-head of Asia. David Reis, executive director and head of technology investments at Goldman Sachs in Europe, will join the Mister Spex advisory board.