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VC-backed Made.com lists in £775m IPO

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Online furniture retailer Made.com – which is backed by VCs including Partech and ProFounders Capital – has listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £775.3m.

A source familiar with the situation told Unquote that the IPO generated returns of 25x for early-stage VC ProFounders Capital, which first invested in the company in 2010, one year after Made.com was founded. The firm owned a fully diluted stake of 6.1% in the company before the IPO.

The exit also means that ProFounders' debut fund, which held a final close in 2011 on £26m, has delivered returns of more than 8.5x, according to the same source.

ProFounders' previous investments include Germany-based tourism startup GetYourGuide, which ProFounders exited in 2019 on Softbank's investment, scoring 17x returns, the same source said.

Made.com's total offer size is £193.8m, according to a statement, with gross proceeds of £100m, corresponding to a free float of 25%.

The company announced its intention to float on 1 June. The company announced on the day of listing that its shares were to be priced at 200 pence apiece.

The company expects to generate revenues of £1.2bn by 2025 and plans to continue to grow its operations in Europe.

JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, while Liberum Capital is acting as co-lead manager.

Unquote reported in May 2021 that PE- and VC-backed European IPOs could be on track for their strongest year since 2017 based on figures to date. According to Unquote Data and Mergermarket, 26 private equity portfolio companies had listed as of 19 May 2021, with an aggregate value of almost €12.7bn.

PE-backed IPOs currently underway for June 2021 include the Riverside Company's Bike24, as well as computer gaming equipment producer Cherry, a portfolio company of US-based Argand Partners.

Several PE-backed companies have also raised large "pre-IPO" funding rounds in 2021, including Lithuania-headquartered secondhand fashion marketplace Vinted, and Germany-based transport startup FlixMobility.

Previous funding
ProFounders invested £2.5m in Made.com in March 2010, joined by angel investors Marc Simoncini and John Hunt, according to Unquote Data. ProFounders generally invests £1-3m per business, targeting early-stage startups and entrepreneurs.

Level Equity led a £6m round for Made.com in January 2012, with ProFounders also participating.

Partech led a $60m funding round for Made.com in July 2015. The GP invested $34m from its €400m Growth Fund, which held a final close in June 2016. Eight Roads Ventures also backed the round, investing via its pan-European fund. Existing investor Level Equity also participated in the round.

Eight Roads Ventures, Level Equity and Partech Ventures led a £40m round for the company in March 2018. According to press reports, the company posted revenues of £127m in 2017.

Prior to the IPO, Partech and Level Equity each owned a stake of around 20% in the company, according to media reports.

Company
Made.com was founded in 2009 by Ning Li, Brent Hoberman, Julien Callede and Chloe Macintosh. Headquartered in London, Made.com is a direct-to-consumer online furniture retailer. Of its revenues, 48% comes from continental Europe, according to its publicly available accounts; the company operates in the UK, DACH, Benelux and Spain.

Made.com posted gross sales of £315m in 2020, the company said in a statement. According to its latest publicly available accounts, the company posted revenues of £247.3m in 2020, compared with sales of £211.8m in 2019. It posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of £5.1m in 2020, versus £9.8m in 2019.

The company employed 629 people in 2020, compared with 552 in 2019.

People
Made.com – Philippe Chainieux (CEO).
ProFounders Capital – Rogan Angelini-Hurll (founder); Sean Seton-Rogers (general partner).
Partech – Bruno Crémel, Omri Benayoun (general partners).

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