News English — Venture Capital

Since JAB went public with their intention to sell off Jimmy Choo there has been continued speculation on who might acquire the company. JAB, an investment/holding company, grew out of the Reckitt Benckiser FMCG empire and have assembled a division of fashion brands including Jimmy Choo, Belstaff, and Bally. The company also hold a significant stake in Coty, the beauty company, and a number of coffee related businesses. In 2016 JAB attempted to list Belstaff, but ultimately had to terminate the process due to lack of demand. Its April 2017 announcmenent that it is seeking to offload Jimmy Choo fits...

In 2007, at the height of its popularity, Inflexion Capital invested in a 27% stake in the company. In 2012 the company closed down its sister brand - Aubin & Wills and hired Wendy Becker as COO. In 2013 Wendy Becker was promoted to CEO of the company by its owner, Peter Williams.  In Aug 2015, the founder, Peter Williams came back to head up the company and in 2016 the company filed reports showing that its holding company made a loss of £14m Jack Wills is a premium fashion retailer of ‘Fabulously British’ casual wear, homeware and accessories for...

In May 2016 Thread.com raised £4m from Balderton Capital and Beringea. The company has raised £10.67m in total since 2013. Thread Online Ltd (owned 100% by Thread Inc) was incorporated in the UK in 2012 and is a styling advice ecommerce retailer targeting men and women. At the moment the service is only live in the UK. Style advice is based on algorithm output based on some 10-20 questions that you need to answer before opening an account. Some of the questions include which brands you like, what you normally pay for a list of 10+ different garments, your measurements...

Our first reaction to Farfetch raising another $110million taking its total funding to $300million was - WHAAAAAT? The company is a retailer without stock and operate as an advanced affiliate network connecting buyers with stores & brands. It earns about 25-30% in commissions on the sales they generate which is much higher than standard affiliate schemes, where anything up to 10% is considered good, and would resemble more of a department store with concession shop-in-shops where up to 40% commission on sales is not unheard of. However, Racked (link below) reports that much of the $110million will be used to...

Lloyds Development Capital acquired a 20% stake in Joules, the UK fashion brand and retailer in 2013 for £22m. What seems to have been little appetite from trade buyers and investment companies in 2015 pushed the company to prepare for a float. On the immediate back of the news that BHS and Austin Reed went into administration the Joules success story might seem like a shining star. We looked at the company's finacials and made a short intro to Joules. More to come. Download the Styleintelligence Joules Ltd insight here