Background
• mydeco was founded in 2007 by Brent Hoberman and brought together many of the management team behind lastminute.com. With its highly functional website and strong product offering mydeco aims to become the leading online marketplace for consumers and suppliers of home design and furnishing
• mydeco approached Close Brothers Corporate Finance to help raise its second round of development capital to support the full commercial launch of the business. The mydeco team sought an investor that could add real value to the business and help the company achieve its strategic objectives
Process and outcome
• In the initial planning stage Close Brothers Corporate Finance worked with the company to refine and articulate the vision and business plan and prepare the business for the fund raising process
• Leveraging its knowledge of the VC community in both Europe and the US, Close Brothers Corporate Finance helped the company approach a number of carefully selected and highly qualified potential investors
• During a tightly run and rapidly executed marketing process, Close Brothers Corporate Finance was able to generate a significant amount of competitive tension without widely shopping the business or creating distraction for the management team
• Despite macroeconomic deterioration and a particularly poor outlook for discretionary consumer spending, Close Brothers Corporate Finance received multiple offers from several high value add investors at very attractive valuation levels
• We were able to combine this interest into a value adding consortium of strategic and financial investors from across Europe, including Sofinnova Partners, SRPE, Amadeus Capital and Burda Cross Media
Testimonials
Brent Hoberman, the Executive Chairman of mydeco commented:
“Close Brothers Corporate Finance helped us secure a great result for all parties with our latest financing round and we were very pleased with the quality of advice and support provided during the process."
Paul Lewington, a Director at Close Brothers Corporate Finance commented:
“While M&A continues to be the core focus of our advisory business, we recognise an opportunity to leverage our TMT industry knowledge and process expertise in helping exceptional early stage and high growth companies to access capital.”
For more information regarding this transaction, please contact Richard Madden, Paul Lewington or Nathaniel Cooper on +44 (0)20 7655 3100.