As a firm focused on M&A and private placement transactions, we have been increasingly interested in seeing disruptive companies participate in this space.
We have seen many promising products/brands fail to grow beyond $10mm-$20mm in gross annual sales due to challenges in scaling up and ultimately failing at building a technology infrastructure or working capital financing.
DTC Notable Key Trends:
- DTC brands are growing 3x faster than an average eCommerce retailer; innovative marketing use-cases like using social media influencers/content creators and digital-first approaches have led to this growth trend
- As per McKinsey’s report on DNBs, over the past 2 decades (2000-2020), only 0.5% of the DTC brands have successfully scaled revenue past the $100mm threshold
- The majority of the DTCs have raised funds to scale up operations, build brand image, invest in R&D and emerging technologies, and expand internationally
- The DTC space saw 19 deals in Q1’22, up from 16 in Q1’21 (~19% QoQ increase). Notable deals during 2021 were SteelSeries ($1.2bn), DECIEM ($1.0bn), RugsUSA ($0.9bn), Igloo ($0.9bn) and Ecobee ($0.8bn)
- Noteworthy players include: Pomelo Fashion (Total funding: $117mm, Apparel), Boll & Branch (Total funding: $112mm, Home), Jaanuu (Total funding: $98mm, Apparel), Serena & Lily (Total funding: $91mm, Home) and ALOHA (Total funding: $90.4mm, Health & Beauty)