Paris, June 27th, 2016 – Bryan, Garnier & Co advised MisterFly, the French Online Travel Agency, on a €20m equity investment from Montefiore Investment and vente-privee.
This sizeable fundraising takes place only a few months after MisterFly’s start of operations in September 2015 and is one of the largest Internet fundraisings in Europe so far this year.
The proceeds will allow MisterFly to speed up growth. Investment areas will include technological development, expansion in the European travel space and targeted acquisitions to broaden the range of its e-travel solutions for both B2C and B2B customers.
This fundraising occurs eight months after the announcement of a strategic partnership with vente-privee, one of the leading European e-commerce players, and two months after the merger with H-Resa, the hotel booking platform, which enabled MisterFly to combine two key travel inventories: flights and accommodation.
Following this transaction, management remains MisterFly’s majority shareholder.
MisterFly’s promising start has already been rewarded with a special performance award at the 2016 Travel d’Or event.
Nicolas BRUMELOT and Carlos DA SILVA, MisterFly’s co-founders, said: “This sizeable fundraising after only 8 months of activity demonstrates the strong potential of MisterFly and the underlying e-travel market, as well as the confidence in our management team. We are particularly proud to have attracted in just a few months highly recognized partners and investors who share our business ethics and values and who will support us in our ambition to become a leading player in the European e-travel market. MisterFly expects to generate over €100m in gross revenues in its first year”.
Eric BISMUTH and Jean-Marc ESPALIOUX, Montefiore Investment’s partners, commented: “We are very excited to invest in MisterFly alongside its talented management team and vente-privee. We have known Nicolas and Carlos for 15 years. They both are proven and recognized serial-entrepreneurs in the travel space. MisterFly’s offering, combining price transparency, quality and innovative services is highly appealing to the modern consumer. Montefiore Investment intends to support the fast-pace development of the Company in France but also its expansion in Europe. This investment is perfectly in line with our strategy and confirms Montefiore Investment’s position as a leading French investor in the service and tourism sectors”.
“We are happy to strengthen our long term partnership with MisterFly further. MisterFly’s unique expertise and sector know-how have already contributed to broaden vente-privee.com’s travel offering. This investment allows us to continue to support MisterFly’s European expansion and therefore accelerate our development in the travel space. Our ambition is to provide travel opportunities to as many web users as possible and our members, with unmet quality of service” explained Jacques-Antoine Granjon, vente-privee’s CEO and founder.
Bryan Garnier & Co acted as sole private placement agent for this transaction. “We are proud to have assisted MisterFly, Montefiore Investment and vente-privee in what we believe will be a very successful partnership in the years to come. After Jahia’s €25m private placement from Invus in 2015, this transaction illustrates Bryan Garnier & Co’s goal to support growth companies over the long run, at each stage of their development, in numerous fields of the technology space. It also demonstrates our deep understanding of the e-travel sector, notably with the sale of Easyvoyage to Webedia Group last year as well as various ongoing transactions in this space” added Thibaut De Smedt and Philippe Patricot, respectively Partner and Managing Director of Bryan, Garnier & Co.
Montefiore Investment – Eric BISMUTH, Jean-Marc ESPALIOUX, Alexandre BONNECUELLE, Teodora ALAVOIDOV
vente-privee.com – Jacques-Antoine GRANJON, Charles-Hubert De CHAUDENAY, Martine GRANIER
Bryan Garnier & Co- Thibaut De SMEDT, Philippe PATRICOT, Jonathan BOHBOT
The Silver Company – Stephane ARGYROPOULOS
MisterFly is the new online travel booking platform launched in September 2015 by Nicolas Brumelot and Carlos Da Silva, the recognized duo of travel entrepreneurs. In addition to its broad and competitive range of flight and accommodation products, MisterFly’s customer promise relies on service, price transparency, innovation and quality: MisterFly aims at providing the best offers as reactively as possible to maintain a trustful and long term relationship with its customers, both B2B and B2C. Customer satisfaction sits at the heart of MisterFly’s strategy. vente-privee teamed up with MisterFly in September 2015 through an industrial and equity partnership to strengthen its e-travel activities. In May 2016, MisterFly and H-Resa combined their expertise through a merger. This strategic alliance between the flight and accommodation booking engine specialists creates a diversified and complementary player in the tourism industry.
Founded in 2005, Montefiore Investment is the leading French investor in Locally Supplied Services (LSS). In less than 10 years, the firm demonstrated its ability to turn French SMEs into true European “champions”. Thanks to its strong sector expertise and know-how, Montefiore Investment supports companies in their growth strategies. Based in Paris and led by 3 partners, Eric BISMUTH, Daniel ELALOUF and Jean-Marc ESPALIOUX, Montefiore Investment manages around €500m of equity. Selected investments include Homair Vacances, BVA, Lyovel, DSO Interactive, Biolab, Interflora and Voyageurs du Monde.
vente-privee.com founded the online sales event concept and is the global leader in the sector. Specializing in selling brand overstock since 2001, online sales are exclusive to its 60 million members in Europe. Registration to the vente-privee.com club is free and with no purchase obligation. Sales are for a limited time only (3 to 5 days) and are organized in close collaboration with over 9,500 major international brands in all product categories: ready-to-wear, homewares, wine, toys, sports, high-tech, travel, etc. Thanks to its partnerships with brands, vente-privee.com offers irresistible discounts (50-70% off). In 2015, vente-privee.com acquired a majority stake in the Belgium player vente-exclusive.com and pursued its European expansion with the acquisitions of Privalia and e-boutich.ch in 2016. With 3,800 employees in 12 European countries, vente-privee.com generated €2.5 billion gross turnover in 2015.