eEquity, the leading digital growth investor in the Nordics, announces a full exit of Royal Design, a leading home furnishing online retailer in the Nordics, to Egmont. The sale resulted in a multiple on invested capital of 7.3 times the initial investment back in late 2012 for eEquity.
Royal Design Group was founded in 1999 by Hans Bengtsson and Andreas Ekberg in Kalmar, Sweden. The company was founded with the ambition of offering the world’s best home furnishing brands at the right price. Today, the company sells online across 13 markets and operates a few physical stores in Sweden under the brands Royal Design and Rum21. Through a successful multichannel strategy, the company has managed to grow with maintained profitability and become the clear leader of the home furnishing space in the Nordics.
Magnus Wiberg, Managing Partner at eEquity, comments: “We invested in Royal Design in December 2012 as the first institutional investor when they had SEK 90 million in revenues. Now, the company has revenues of SEK 1,000 million with nice profitability. We have been very active in the investment and have played a key role in acquiring the furniture arm Rum21, built a fantastic management team, and been involved in two major projects that have played an important part in the increased profitability: a top-notch e-commerce platform and a state-of-the-art automated warehouse. We are very happy with the investment that is estimated to generate a multiple of 7.3x of the initial investment.”
eEquity is one of the most active Nordic investors in the segment, having led investments of over SEK 2.5 bn across 35 platform transactions. By being a sector fund, eEquity can provide the portfolio companies with the eEquity Toolbox that is created from the accumulated experience from us and all our e-com portfolio companies. In the last fund, eEquity companies have on average grown sales with over 60% per annum during the holding period.
Magnus Pettersson, CEO at Royal Design, comments: “Once I joined as CEO of the company in 2017 we have together with our owners eEquity and Verdane built a completely different company that now is twice as large but more importantly, it is ready to scale with great profitability.”
Additional questions
Magnus Wiberg
Managing Partner
+46 735 375 000
magnus@eequity.se
About eEquity
Founded in 2010, eEquity is a private equity firm investing in Nordic digital growth companies. Portfolio companies include, among others, Pricerunner, Footway, NA-KD, iDeal of Sweden, Aim’n, Preglife, and TwistShake. eEquity invests in growth companies benefiting from online and digital conversion, being led by strong entrepreneurs with the potential of becoming clear market leaders. The investors behind eEquity consist of leading European family offices and international financial institutions.
About Royal Design
Royal Design is the largest design and home furnishing online retailer in the Nordics and operates well established online stores in key European countries. With over 120 premium brands across a broad range of products, Royal Design offers a market-leading assortment online and in their flagship stores. The company was founded in 1999 by Hans Bengtsson and Andreas Ekberg and is headquartered in Kalmar, Sweden.
