Michala Gregorová
Slevomat.cz changes its owners. Current shareholders, investment groups Miton, Enern and In-Bridge, signed today an agreement with UK-based Secret Escapes to sell their total combined 100% equity interests in Slevomat.cz together with its Slovak business Zlavomat.sk and Czech-based aggregator Skrz.cz. Transaction is subject to fulfillment of customary conditions precedents.
Secret Escapes is one of the world’s leading luxury travel companies, offering its members amazing flash sales with exclusive discounts on a hand-picked range of luxury hotels and holidays every week. The Group was established in the UK in 2011 and has expanded since then to sell to its 42 million members in 21 markets across Europe, North America and Asia. Secret Escapes has been supported by a number of high profile investors along with its journey, including Google Ventures, Index Ventures and many others.
Founding Co-Partner of Miton, Mr Tomáš Matějček said: „Slevomat and Skrz are well-managed and financially very healthy businesses with a strong market position, hence there has always been a great investment demand for them. We are very pleased to have international strategic player Secret Escapes as a new Slevomat shareholder, it is, I believe, great opportunity for the Slevomat team.“
Slevomat.cz was established in 2010by Mr. Tomáš Čupr. Subsequently, Miton invested and then in 2011 Enern and In-Bridge. Miton owns majority 55.5% share, Enern together with Mr Čupr hold 36%, In-Bridge 8.5%.
Mr Tomáš Čupr said: “Successful exit of Slevomat can significantly help the technology sector in the Czech Republic. Take small Estonia, where proceeds from the sale of Skype enabled a wave of investments into many innovative projects and Estonia is now, despite its small size, a world-stage digital player. I am sure that something similar will take place after the sale of Slevomat as well here.”
There are 200-300 thousand daily unique visitors on Slevomat sites and in 2016 Slevomat intermediated services worth almost CZK 2 billion.
Alex Saint, Co-Founder and CEO of Secret Escapes said: “We are really excited to welcome the Slevomat business into the Secret Escapes family. Since we launched our own Travelist brand in Central Europe last year we have always known that there is huge potential in the region for travel deals businesses, and the acquisition of Slevomat allows us to accelerate our growth in the region. We believe that the deal offers a great opportunity for both businesses to learn and flourish together.”
Mr. Pavel Vopařil managed the transaction on shareholders’ behalf, a financial adviser was CORPIN together with their partner Rothschild&Co.
About Miton
7 out of 10 Czech internet users are using at least one of the many digital services launched or co-owned by Miton in the last 16 years. Miton’s portfolio includes: Bonami, Glami, Rohlik, Restu, Biano, Driveto, GoOut, Startupjobs and many foreign sister businesses of these brands for example in Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Italy or in Slovakia. Best known Miton’s projects exited previously include Heureka.cz and Damejidlo.cz.
About Enern
Enern was established in 2010 by Messrs Petr Šmída, Pavel Mucha, Radek Švec and Radovan Nesrsta. Mr Tomáš Čupr became the fifth partner in August 2015. Enern has deep investment experience - besides Slevomat Enern invested EUR15m from its ET2 fund into projects such as: Rohlik.cz, Twisto, Polish-Turkish Lavito, French Star of Service, Flatio, Joymile, Nestpick or globally operating ROI hunter. EUR50m from Enern’s ET3 fund is targeted at fast-growing firms such as Poland-based DocPlanner.
About In-Bridge
In-Bridge is an investment group of Slevomat co-founder, Mr Martin Korman.
About Secret Escapes
www.secretescapes.com is a free-to-join members website, which runs ‘best-in-market’ flash sales of four and five-star hotels and holidays worldwide. The hotels and holidays are hand-picked by a team of travel experts and include everything from European getaways and city breaks to multi-destination adventures and long-haul holidays, with travel included.
Launched in February 2011 and founded by CEO Alex Saint, COO Tom Valentine and Troy Collins, the company works with its leading hotel, tour operator and travel agent partners to negotiate exclusive rates for over 42 million members globally, and 5 million members in the Eastern Europe alone. Outside of the UK, Secret Escapes operates in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
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