Mister Spex, Europe’s leading online optician, has raised over EUR 65 million to drive further business expansion.
DN Capital led the Series A round of Mister Spex in 2010 and has since supported the company to internationalize across Europe. 2018 as a financial year marked a further milestone for the business, with Mister Spex maintaining strong top-line growth while also achieving profitability. The new investment will enable the company to accelerate this strong momentum via further development of its retail store portfolio and acceleration of its international expansion plans. The Büll Family Office led the equity round with participation from existing investors (Grazia Equity, Stephan Schambach and Ehssan Dariani among others) while Global Growth Capital has provided a senior debt facility.
“The continued success achieved over the past year yet again underlines how our business model has changed the whole eyewear sector,” said Dirk Graber, founder and co-CEO of Mister Spex. “The current financing round will enable us to invest in further growth, and we have established three clear strategic priorities: further expansion of our retail store network, internationalisation and additional investment into logistics. Through the Büll Family Office, we are delighted to have gained a very experienced partner in the retail sector, which will allow us to gain further momentum. Global Growth Capital has provided a complimentary debt structure to support our store expansion strategy.“
“We strongly believe in Mister Spex as a brand and business model and are looking forward to becoming a part of their success story. Given our long-standing experience in commercial real estate, we will actively support the management team with the expansion of their own store network”, says Albert Büll, founder of the Büll Family Office.
“We believe that Mister Spex has developed a unique business model that not only harnesses changes in consumer behaviour but also leverages multiple online and offline distribution channels to drive profitable growth. We are very exited to partner with their talented team,” says Olya Klüppel, Partner at Global Growth Capital.
Incorporated in 2007, Mister Spex has since become a leading online optician offering an extensive product portfolio of over 10,000 prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses to its three million customers. The company’s online shops serve consumers in ten countries. In line with its omnichannel strategy, the company operates eleven of its own retail stores in Germany and has developed a wide network of partner opticians in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden.
“Our continued success underlines our belief in combining the best of both worlds: online and offline,” added Dr. Mirko Caspar, co-CEO of Mister Spex. “Sales in our online shops continue to grow strongly. However, our experience shows that through the unique combination of online shops, our own retail locations and over 500 partner opticians, we are able to add an additional layer to the consumer experience and fully address the market potential. We remain committed to our omnichannel strategy.“
About Mister Spex:
Mister Spex is Europe’s leading online optician. Through its website, the Berlin-based company offers, alongside contact lenses, a comprehensive range of directly available designer glasses and sunglasses across Europe, all at attractive prices. In addition to transparent pricing and cost savings for complete prescription glasses, customers benefit from free services such as eye tests and glasses adjustments, as Mister Spex already works in partnership with more than 500 local opticians in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden. The Mister Spex service team is made up of qualified opticians providing customer advice by telephone or e-mail. The company has its own optician’s workshop in Berlin, where the final production and quality control of the glasses takes place. Throughout Europe the company counts more than 3 million customers. In February 2016 Mister Spex opened its first store in Berlin and was honored with the Red Dot Award for its innovative shop concept in the same year. The company now has 11 own stores in Germany.
About DN Capital
DN Capital is a leading early stage venture capital firm which focuses on Seed, Series A and select series B investments in marketplaces, software, fintech, consumer internet and digital health companies. The firm was founded in 2000 and has operations in London, Berlin and Silicon Valley. DN Capital’s previous funds are top performers and the firm is one of the lead investors in companies such as Endeca (sold to Oracle), Shazam (one of the world’s leading mobile apps, sold to Apple), Auto1 (Europe’s largest used-car marketplace), Purplebricks (IPO London), OLX (sold to Naspers), Remitly (North America’s largest independent digital remittance platform) and Quandoo (sold to Recruit). The professionals at DN Capital bring over 75 years of private equity experience to their investments, and actively work with portfolio companies to steward their growth through the various stages of development.