Amsterdam, April 1, 2015 – Through a new investment round and share purchase, SanomaVentures has gained a majority interest in Brandkids, an international online retailer of children’s fashion. In 2013 SanomaVentures provided seed funding for Brandkids, which now operates from offices in Haarlem and Berlin.
Brandkids was founded in 2013 by Hans Lormans, Peter Sorber and Michel Sollie, with seed funding from SanomaVentures in the form of working capital and media budget. To boost further growth, also in Germany, SanomaVentures is now providing additional working capital and also acquires a small shareholding from the founders, after which SanomaVentures will hold a majority shareholding. Founders Lormans, Sorber and Sollie will remain on board as large shareholders and as management of Brandkids, which will remain independently organized and located in Haarlem and Berlin.
International growth
Herman Kienhuis, investment director at SanomaVentures is enthusiastic about the investment: “Brandkids has developed very well in the last two years. Their focused e-commerce activities clearly fit our strategy and they have a good connection to Sanoma’s existing activities in the domains ‘women’ and ‘parenting’ and to other e-commerce activities within the group. Additionally, we are positive on the international growth opportunity in premium kids fashion. Add to this the entrepreneurial drive of the founders, which makes us believe that Brandkids has a good chance of realising substantial growth in the coming years.”
Creating scale
Brandkids co-founder Hans Lormans is happy with Sanoma strengthening the partnership and becoming a majority shareholder: “As an entrepreneur you want to focus on finding new markets and creating and capturing opportunities. E-commerce is developing very fast. You have to continuously innovate and stay ahead. With Sanoma as a strong and stable partner we can focus on the things that we do well. Sanoma helps us to accelerate our growth and reach a larger scale which is key in e-commerce.”
About Brandkids
Brandkids is a unique online store for children’s apparel, shoes, accessories and toys. Brandkids.nl launched in March 2013 and is attracting more than 100,000 visitors per month. In 2014 it opened Brandkids.de for the German market. Brandkids offers a unique assortment of high quality international labels such as: Scotch & Soda, Tommy Hilfiger, Replay, Adidas, Moodstreet, Converse, Ralph Lauren, Blue Rebel, Ugg Australia, New Balance, McGregor, Gaastra, Blue Rebel, Baby Face, etc. In addition to the latest collections, Brandkids provides consumers with the possibility to sell ‘vintage’ items, which children have outgrown, on the platform as well, with payments being facilitated by Brandkids.
www.brandkids.nl | www.brandkids.de | facebook.com/brandkidscom
About SanomaVentures
SanomaVentures is the corporate venturing arm of the European media & education group Sanoma Corporation ($SAA1V). SanomaVentures aims to support tech start-ups by providing capital, media reach, expertise, network and active support and focuses on strategic early-stage investments in digital media & marketing, e-commerce and education. SanomaVentures has offices in Amsterdam and Helsinki.
Since 2012, SanomaVentures has invested in among others: Scoupy, Peerby, VirtuaGym, Brandkids, Nosto, Fosbury, ShopVIP / Goeiemode.nl, Springest, Roomlr, LocalsUnited and SendCloud.
sanomaventures.com| twitter.com/sanomaventures
For additional information:
Brandkids
Hans Lormans
Mob: 06-22208462
E-mail: hans@brandkids.com
Sanoma, Communications
Nathalie Kruger
Mob: 06-46135317
E-Mail: nathalie.kruger@sanoma.com