Printful becomes Latvia's first unicorn

Following a $130 million investment, Printful gained a valuation of more than $1 billion, making it Latvia’s first unicorn. 

The investment was from Bregal Sagemont, the first investment that Printful has sought out, making it also the first opportunity to gain a valuation. Until now, Printful has been fully bootstrapped and has grown to generate $200 million in revenue in 2020 alone, a growth rate of 80% when compared to the previous year.

Printful is a print-on-demand dropshipping and fulfilment service, making it possible for e-commerce entrepreneurs to print and ship their designs via Printful. That includes apparel such as t-shirts and sweaters, accessories, home decor, and more. 

“During the 8 years of operation, we’ve grown from a startup to a global industry leader. We owe it all to the hard work of our team, led by Latvia’s new generation of entrepreneurs. This investment confirms the strength of Printful’s position and shows that we operate in an industry with significant growth potential. We look forward to partnering with Bregal Sagemount as we continue our journey,” Davis Siksnans, Printful CEO and co-founder.

Bregal Sagemount is a growth-focused private capital firm with $4 billion of committed capital. The firm provides flexible capital and strategic assistance to market-leading companies in high-growth sectors across a wide variety of transaction situations. Bregal Sagemount invests $40 million to $400 million per transaction into targeted sectors including software, digital infrastructure, healthcare IT / services, business and consumer services, and financial technology/speciality finance.

“We’re honoured to have the opportunity to invest in Latvia’s first Unicorn company. We’re familiar with Skype (Estonia) and Vinted (Lithuania) and are proud to be associated with Printful, Latvia’s most successful technology company. This is one of the largest investments in our firm’s nine-year history. We invest only in companies we see as leaders in their respective industries, and that’s why we decided to invest in Printful – a front-runner in the apparel-on-demand industry,” comments Bregal Sagemount partner and co-founder Adam Fuller, adding that several of the companies in their portfolio are currently listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Adam Fuller will join Printful’s Board of Directors alongside CEO and co-founder Davis Siksnans, COO Zane Levsa, and Chairman of the Board and co-founder Lauris Liberts.

Printful is an on-demand printing and warehousing company that helps people turn their ideas into brands and products. Design enthusiasts, influencers, start-ups, and even global brands such as Coca-Cola use Printful services and can offer more than 260 different products to customers worldwide. Printful has scaled to a team of 1,800+ people across eight fulfilment centres around the world. Since the start of its operations, Printful has fulfilled and shipped more than 32 million products to customers.

Printful was launched in 2013 under the Draugiem Group by co-founders Lauris Liberts and Davis Siksnans. The startup was created as a spinoff to the success found running the Startup Vitamins e-commerce store. After testing several printing and fulfilment services, they found that no platform was able to provide the technological integration, combined with the quality and service that they wanted. And so it was decided to create their own. 

At first, Lauris Liberts was printing posters from his home in California. The startup quickly began to grow, and it has been exponentially growing in size ever since. 

Now, the startup has 9 fulfilment centres in 6 countries around the world, with three facilities in the UK and Brazil coming soon. Together, they employ over 1,800 people.

The Draugiem Group is home to many startups. Those include Mapon, Vendon, RoadGames, and more. 

Source: labsoflatvia.com