Founded by Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante in 2013, MVMT has operated one of the most prolific and efficient playbooks in the burgeoning direct to consumer industry. In what could be the most important acquisition in the DNVB space, the five year old MVMT brand was acquired by the Movado Group for $100 million, with long term incentives amassing an additional $100 million. This would place MVMT’s acquisition at a 2.25x 2017’s sales with 100% of the proceeds going to the founding team.
A quick Crunchbase scan would imply that the two founders have bootstrapped the operation beginning with a $300,000 Indiegogo campaign in 2013. The 2PM Online Retail database reveals that MVMT generated $75 million in eCommerce revenue in 2017. And a scan of their brick and mortar locations would communicate one of their keys to success: limited partnerships in physical retail. The brand can only be found in Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s stores (mostly online). According to the brand’s eCommerce design agency,MVMT’s secret to captivating their global audience is derived from a strategy aimed to present relevant shopping experiences, whether it be across device or region.
Going head-to-head with Amazon.com Inc. may sound like a suicide mission, but Brandless’s pitch was enough to win over Masayoshi Son. On July 31, Brandless announced that SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund had invested $240 million; the deal values Brandless at a little over $500 million. Brandless CEO Tina Sharkey says she doesn’t see Amazon as a direct competitor. “Amazon is the everything store,” she says. “We’re a highly curated collection.”
