Mattress seller eve Sleep (LON:EVE) is to float on Aim Thursday with a market capitalisation of around £140mln.
The company announced bright and early on Monday morning it had conditionally raised around £35mln in fresh capital through the placing of 34.6mln shares at 101p a pop.
It may seem perverse for a retailer dedicated to a good night’s sleep to describe itself as “disruptive” but Jas Bagniewski, possibly after attending a few too many management gobbledigook seminars, did something along those lines.
WATCH: eve Sleep 'providing great sleep for people', says CEO Jas Bagniewski
“With our simplified direct to consumer proposition, we are disrupting a fragmented European market, which is forecast to be worth approximately £26 billion by 2019. The funds raised will accelerate our growth strategy including through deepening penetration within our ten existing markets, as well as expanding our product range,” Bagniewski said.
It’s not just the “consumer proposition” – whatever that is – that is simplified; the company has just six products, according to its corporate fact sheet, though it has a stated aim of extending its “non-mattress product range within the bedroom”.
So, pillows and duvets, then …
Based in Britain, it claims its aesthetic design is influenced by Scandinavian themes of simplicity, “with a distinctive colour palette”.
Ah … so, pillows and duvets in blue and yellow, then.
A new dawn is coming – eve sleep is floating on the Stock Market! Four days and counting pic.twitter.com/BDIrkGr0M6
— eve Sleep (@eve_sleep) May 15, 2017
Joking aside, the company’s top line is growing incredibly rapidly. Year-on-year growth in 2016 was 355%, with revenues clocking in at £12.0mln versus £2.6mln the year before.
It made a gross profit of £5.8mln, up from £1.3mln the year before, but being an online retailer and thus in the “land grab” phase, all of this growth simply resulted in a bigger loss.
The underlying loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation widened to £11.5mln from £1.5mln in 2015.
The company’s board is chaired by Paul Pindar, who as former chief executive of Capita Group probably knows a thing or two about sleepless night.
One of eve’s earliest backers, Octopus Ventures, hailed the team’s achievements since it first invested in the online retailer back in 2015.
“When we first backed eve back in May 2015, and twice again since, we knew the team were unusually talented entrepreneurs who would dare to go big and create change, and that's exactly what they have done - including marking the first retail IPO of 2017!” said Luke Hakes, investment director at Octopus Ventures.
CEO and co-founder Bagniewski said the company looked to the future with real confidence.
“eve has a clear growth strategy, an experienced management team and a scalable operational model to continue building on its momentum,” he said.