MCI.TechVentures Fund’s stake in European e-store Windeln.de ups to over 15%

Cristina Blanaru Business, e-Commerce

MCI.TechVentures Fund (MCI.TV), managed by Private Equity Managers, upped its stake in Windeln.de – e-retailer for baby and children’s products – to reach to over 15% shares, becoming company’s larger shareholder. This is one of the steps of implementing MCI Capital’s strategy, as  e-commerce segment is one of the key areas for group’s investmens.

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Germany’s Windeln.de – with annual sales forecasted to exceed €200M in 2016 – is a European leading e-store in its product category. According to released Q3 2016 financial results, the company has financial liquidity of close t to €80M (with approx. €65.5M cash, and €14M as revolving credit facility), which can be deployed for further expansion and diversification of sales (organic growth and acquisitions), development of portfolio of private label products, as well as operational initiatives supporting both the improvement of profitability and increase of monetization along with extension of age profile of target consumers (customer life time value).

We decided to increase our investment exposure to Windeln.de, because the company operates in a market segment with high growth potential in terms of penetration via the e-commerce channel. At the same time, we believe that the current stock market valuation remains attractive compared to peer companies (…) We also believe that in the coming years Windeln.de will be an interesting asset: both from the perspective of potential merger and acquisition by incumbent players operating on the e-commerce market and that of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, who plan to expand their online sales.

Norbert Kruszewski,

Investment Director Private Equity Managers

The fund’s first investment in Windeln.de was completed in 2013. During an IPO in 2015 MCI.TV sold approx. 1/4 of its shares.

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The stake that MCI.TechVentures currently owns makes it the company’s largest shareholder. The value of shareholding corresponds to around 5,5% of the assets under management in the MCI.TV Fund.

The increase of MCI.TV’s capital involvement in Windeln.de is part of the group’s strategy directed at strengthening the portfolio of funds associated with MCI Capital, in terms of attractive companies operating in the e-commerce market. Along with Windeln.de, MCI.TechVentures portfolio also includes Frisco.pl (Poland’s leader in the e-grocery market), Morele.net (the biggest online store in Poland for consumer electronics) and Pigu.lt (the largest e-commerce store in the Baltic countries).

MCI Capital is a leading European growth capital firm investing in digital economy. Fifty percent of the portfolio companies are outside of Poland, MCI’s origin market. The company has also a strong exposition on fintech, with stakes in iZettle, Azimo and MarketInvoice. Total assets of MCI’s funds are in excess of $600M

windeln.de, online retailer for baby, toddler and children’s products, has presence in 10 European countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Spain. The company also operates a successful e-commerce business with products for babies and toddlers for customers in China.