Lennertz & Co. leads financing round for brillen.de
Hamburg — A private equity fund initiated by Hamburg-based family office Lennertz & Co. is acquiring a minority stake in SuperVista AG, which operates in Germany under the “brillen.de” brand. Lennertz & Co. and some of SuperVista’s founders and employees are participating in the current financing round in the double-digit million range.
With its unique digital concept, the Brandenburg-based company combines the cost efficiency of an online provider with the necessary customer service of traditional opticians’ stores. This enables the partner opticians in the network to hold their own against the competition from the large optical chain stores and online-only providers.
The SuperVista concept is based on a close integration of online and offline, which builds on strong customer acquisition through online marketing with the greatest possible digitalization, starting with the offer of glasses, through their production to the handover to the customer on site. Intermediary costs are eliminated entirely. Meanwhile, the network of partner opticians covers 7 countries with more than 1,700 stores including the company’s own stores. The turnover of the SuperVista Group was recently over EUR 200 million and continues to grow in contrast to the industry.
“The SuperVista business model is proof of how disruption works in an industry, in this case in fruitful collaboration with the many partner opticians on the ground,” says Philipp Lennertz, managing partner of Lennertz & Co. “We are pleased to again have the opportunity to participate in this great growth story in the current round of funding.” Lennertz & Co. had already held a stake in SuperVista AG in an earlier phase and had sold its shares to the US investment firm TCV, SuperVista’s current anchor investor, in 2016.
Matthias Kamppeter, founder of brillen.de: “Our unique business model and positioning as a discounter in the ophthalmic optics industry has proven to be a successful concept for differentiating ourselves from the major competitors for 10 years now. The current capital increase enables us to further expand our network of partner opticians and our own stores throughout Europe.”
About Lennertz & Co.
As an entrepreneurial and owner-managed family office, Lennertz & Co. is exclusively focused on the success of its clients’ investments. The investment recommendations are in line with the personal preference of the clients. They benefit from the independence of Lennertz & Co. and the exclusivity of the investment opportunities.
Lennertz & Co. also has a large number of authorization certificates from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and is thus subject to numerous qualitative and quantitative requirements of both BaFin and the Deutsche Bundesbank.
Lennertz & Co. shares its clients’ demand for fast, profound and secure decisions. In order to thoroughly examine the emerging opportunities in the venture and growth capital, private equity and blockchain segments for its clients, Lennertz & Co. has a competent team at its disposal that can look back on decades of experience. In addition, the advisory board consists of renowned industry, venture capital and private equity experts such as Prof. Dr. Heinrich von Pierer, Prof. Dr. Klaus Wucherer, Stefan Theis, Daniel Thung, Daniel Milleg and Florian Heinemann.
About brillen.de
brillen.de is the German brand of the international omnichannel company SuperVista AG, which is known for the production and sale of progressive and single vision glasses in high quality at low prices. The company started in Germany in 2012 with 12 employees, a few partner opticians and sales of less than EUR 1 million. Today, more than 1,300 company-owned employees work for the hybrid optician in more than 1,700 affiliated or company-owned optical stores in currently seven countries with sales of more than EUR 200 million (2021). The largest markets are Spain and Italy, ahead of Poland and the United Kingdom.