6th Oct 2010 – Frog Capital is delighted to congratulate Gustavo Garcia and his team on their fantastic achievements, from starting BuyVIP in 2006 to achieving significant scale in 2009 and being acquired by Amazon.com, the global leader in online commerce, in 2010. The transaction is subject to EU competition ruling.
Frog Capital provided a €5m financing earlier this year to assist the business to increase its rate of growth and capitalise on several unique product sourcing opportunities.
BuyVIP, based in Madrid, is one of the top European private buyers’ club, with more than 400 brand relationships including Gucci, Calvin Klein, Diesel and Timberland and with an online community of more than six million members. Having operations in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands and Portugal, the company offers a unique and efficient direct marketing channel to its brand partners.
Online private buying clubs are showing tremendous growth in many European countries, as fashion-conscious consumers flock to the web to save both time and money by accessing special offers and campaigns. As a result, the online channel is becoming an integral part of many brands’ international distribution strategy. The overall European market opportunity is estimated to exceed €1 billion in 2010.
“BuyVIP.com offers their members an exciting selection of top fashion and lifestyle products at extraordinarily low prices,” said Greg Greeley, vice president European Retail at Amazon. “BuyVIP.com is an excellent complement to Amazon’s European business and will provide another unique way for Amazon customers to find and discover unique and compelling products.”
“We are excited about joining the Amazon family and believe doing so will help us further grow our presence in Europe and allow us to offer our members an even broader selection of high-quality products,” said Gustavo Garcia Brusilovsky, chief executive officer of BuyVIP.com.
Mike Reid, Managing Partner at Frog Capital said “Having first met Gustavo when I was at 3i, we have been tracking his progress with close interest. So we were especially pleased to have the chance to support him and his fantastic team again this year. He has delivered Frog an outstanding rate of return.”