Sentio Insight has provided financial due diligence on Piper PE LLP and Winona Capital Management LLC’s combined £20m investment into Monica Vinader Limited, the British affordable luxury jewellery brand. Piper has invested £14m and US consumer specialist Winona Capital has invested a further £6m to help accelerate growth in the US.
Monica Vinader founded her eponymous business in 2007 to provide customers with affordable luxury pieces that bridge the gap between costume and fine jewellery. The brand quickly became renowned for its iconic friendship bracelets, vibrant gemstones and cutting edge diamond pieces enabling customers to style, stack and personalise their jewellery. The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Winslet and Alicia Vikander are among Monica Vinader’s many high profile customers.
The business, which is run by Monica and her sister Gabriela, currently has three London stores (in Chelsea, Mayfair and Canary Wharf) and a rapidly growing global footprint in the US and Asia; its jewellery can be found in department stores both in the UK and internationally. Monica Vinader employs 168 staff and turnover has trebled in the last three years to reach £23m.
The investment will support the continued growth of the business. This will include a further roll-out of its own and franchised stores, expansion of its wholesale distribution, particularly in the US, as well as continued investment in its own e-commerce channel. This is the seventh investment from Piper’s £107m, fifth fund.
Monica Vinader said: “We undertook a rigorous review of potential partners we could work with on our next stage of growth. It was the passion that Piper and Winona demonstrated for our brand and our growth ambitions that really appealed to us. They stood out from all the others due to their deep understanding of how to grow consumer brands and their ability to add significant value through their networks, knowledge and in-house expertise”.
Dan Stern, Investment Director at Piper, said: “We have used Sentio for financial due diligence on a number of our investments, and we really value their partner led and hands-on approach to projects which enables them to provide valuable insights, opinions and recommendations.”
The financial due diligence team at Sentio was Ian Robinson and Tom Hayes.
