The Italian company Viniexport recently secured a 2.000.000€ funding round to pursue its international expansion. The deal has been structured by Inveready in four different tranches contingent on milestones to prevent a higher cost of capital for the company and has had the support of the current Viniexport partners.
The company, founded in 2015 by Eugenio Picca, offers companies in the HORECA trade a central purchasing platform with a wide, direct catalogue of products, with competitive prices and the convenience of centralized logistics. The offering supposes a substantial savings in time for customers, reducing both administrative and logistics costs. Throughout these three years, Viniexport expects this year to reach €10mm. in gross sales of its products, positioning itself as a leader in a competitive market such as Italy, gaining the trust of prominent hotel chains, major foodservice groups, restaurants groups and independent restaurants. Initially, the company expects to offer to the Spanish HORECA industry its catalogue of Italian wines, and progressively, introduce Spanish wine producers. On a second stage, a similar process will take place in France and Germany where the one stop shop access to Italian&Spanish&French wines is appreciated by the restaurant owner.
Inveready has used its hybrid debt / equity Venture Debt financing instrument in this deal. This type of financing, accessible to companies that have demonstrated the viability and scalability of their business model, allows companies to minimize dilution compared to an equity funding round.
Carlos Conti, General Partner of Inveready, responsible for this type of operations, comments on the matter:
"We are pleased to be able to support the international expansion of a validated business model such as Viniexport.
This is our first investment outside Spain and we are excited to act as ambassadors for Viniexport in our natural market. We have made other investments in the wine market in the past and we believe that we can contribute knowledge and contacts to the company. This operation confirms the value added of hybrid financing instruments; they are more than a financial impulse for the company.”
Viniexport, present in Spain and Italy, currently sells more than 100,000 bottles per month and had around 7,000 customers and 2,000 suppliers. Viniexport customers are renowned companies in the hotel, restaurant, airline and specialized distribution groups.
Eugenio Picca, CEO and founder of the company comments:
“The entry of a strategic partner such as Inveready has helped us to better understand the dynamics of the wine market in Spain while the entry of capital will allow us to be able to expand our operations and validate our process of international expansion to be able to scale the business model more easily in the future.
Additionally, the entry of new funds allows us to increase the competitiveness of our offer by increasing the number of suppliers and implementing the necessary improvements to adapt the platform to the international market.”
About ViniExport
Founded in 2015, Viniexport sells wines through an online platform focused on professional clients (HoReCa). In the same way, Viniexport allows small and medium sized wineries to position themselves within a market with a substantial orders growth. The company is a leader in its segment in Italy with over five thousand references of wine and more than 200m of bottles ready for sale. Viniexport is present in Italy and recently entered the Spanish market.
In 2017, Viniexport’s turnover exceeded two and a half million euros with sustained growth year after year and maintaining profitability.
About Inveready Technology Investment Group
Inveready Technology Investment Group (www.inveready.com) is a leading VC in Spain focused on supporting innovative companies in their early stages of life and with financial needs between 0.5 and 4 million euros. Inveready has offices in Barcelona, Madrid and San Francisco.
Inveready has 9 investment vehicles with more than € 125 million in assets under management, more than 80 portfolio companies such as WineisSocial, MasMovil Bitext, Palo Biofarma, Bilua, Odilo or Catchoom. Inveready has participated in flagship operations in its market such as the sales of Password Bank to Symantec, 3Scale Networks to Red Hat, Indisys to Intel and Masmovil, the largest Spanish unicorn with a market capitalisation of €2,5 bn.. In 2018, the Venture Debt vehicle has sold iSalud to CNP Assurance and Respiro to the VW group.
The transaction has received comprehensive counsel from law firm LexCrea.
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