DN Capital’s portfolio company Mister Spex, one of Europe’s largest online eyewear retailers listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange on July 2, 2021. The Company’s shares were priced at €25 at the initial public offering with a total placement volume amounted to €375 million. With a valuation of $1 billion Mister Spex is now officially an unicorn which was widely covered in the media here and here.
The multi-award-winning company is at the forefront of the industry’s transformational shift, growing from a pure online player into a successful omnichannel optician with more than 5 million customers, 10 online shops across Europe and physical retail stores. The focus of Mister Spex is to make eyewear purchase for customers an easy, transparent and fun shopping experience by combining a comprehensive and varied range of high-quality products with optician expertise and services through its customer service, own stores and an extensive network of partner opticians.
DN Capital is proud to have led the Series A in 2010 and since then to have been able to work closely with the Company on this exciting journey. Congratulations to Dirk Graber, Mirko Dr. Caspar, Stefanie Budesheim-Wels, Dr. Sebastian Dehnen, Christian Hoya and Maren Kroll + all other team members. You deserve every bit off it – thank you for letting us be part of your exciting journey.
“We are very happy and proud to have been involved in Mister Spex from the beginning when we led the Series A round in 2010. Today Mister Spex has become the global market leader in omnichannel eyewear retail and the IPO is a great milestone for the company to reflect their achievements and success to date. We believe this is just the beginning for Mister Spex and look forward to watching the company’s development.”
(DN Capital Founder and Managing Partner, Nenad Marovac)
The gross proceeds to the Company from the sale of all the new shares will be primarily used to accelerate Mister Spex’s growth strategy, as well as secure the technological advance with further investments. The Company has substantial headroom to double-down on its home market Germany via retail expansion and to further grow its online presence in geographies outside of Germany. Spectacles maker EssilorLuxottica has agreed to buy shares worth 50 million euros as a so-called cornerstone investor, while investment firms Janus Henderson and M&G Investments also invested in the IPO.
Next to AUTO1 Group, Mister Spex is the second IPO in the DN portfolio this year – we are looking forward to what the second half of 2021 has in store.