US fund Great Hill in talks to acquire Notonthehighstreet | Enterprise News

A US-dependent investment decision company is in state-of-the-art talks to purchase Notonthehighstreet, the British-centered on line personalised gifts retailer.

Sky Information has learnt that Wonderful Hill Companions, which has backed providers which includes the house furnishings site Wayfair and Momondo, the electronic vacation team, is close to agreeing a deal to invest in the 15-12 months-aged business.

Notonthehighstreet has been correctly up for sale for quite a few months, when it employed bankers at Evercore to discover a transaction.

The selling price that Wonderful Hill will fork out for the internet site was unclear on Friday, although people near to the system had formerly signalled that it was probable to catch the attention of features of all-around £150m.

It was also unclear whether Great Hill would choose comprehensive ownership of the small business, while folks near to the method claimed they predicted it to invest in a the vast majority stake.

Great Hill has backed scores of mid-current market firms in the US and Europe, boosting a $2.5bn fund in 2019 to make investments in firms displaying annual earnings growth of at minimum 15%.

Rival bidders in the course of action incorporated the London-dependent private fairness organization Exponent.

Notonthehighstreet sells personalised items this sort of as guides, jewelry and toys, and like other online retailers is recognized to have noticed a spike in revenues throughout the COVID-19 disaster.

Established in 2006, the business is dependent in Richmond and employs a lot more than 150 men and women.

It acts as a marketplace for 5000 modest organization-homeowners.

Established up by Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, the site has develop into a well-liked desired destination for individuals wanting to acquire personalised presents.

Its outstanding prospects contain the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who made use of the web site to purchase Prince George a personalised dressing robe that was found when they achieved the then-US president Barack Obama in 2016.

In its hottest annual report for the 2019 monetary calendar year, the organization explained it experienced served additional than 2.5m buyers all through the period of time, but witnessed whole revenues flat in contrast to the year just before at just about £35m.

Its future yearly report is owing to be posted in March.

Notonthehighstreet’s backers include things like Hubert Burda Media, the German publisher, which turned a shareholder in 2016 as component of a £21m fundraising.

Other investors incorporate Index Ventures and an arm of the asset administration large Fidelity.

The company is chaired by Darren Shapland, the previous finance chief of J Sainsbury.

His appointment in 2015 sparked speculation that Notonthehighstreet was making ready to float on the stock marketplace, but its efficiency considering the fact that then, and its shareholders’ choice for a sale, have led it to start the auction with Evercore.

In 2019, the enterprise appointed a previous HelloFresh govt, Jill Davenport, as its chief government.

Notonthehighstreet and Terrific Hill declined to comment.