Coming on the heels of the acquisition of Jack Black by Edgewell last month, perhaps M&A is heating up for the men’s category. Harry’s has received a minority equity investment from leading consumer-focused growth equity firm Alliance Consumer Growth (“ACG”), who was joined by Temasek and Tao Capital, as well as existing Harry’s investors.
WHO: Harry’s was founded in March 2013 with the goal of delivering an exceptional shave at a fair price. Harry’s is the first vertically integrated, omni-channel shaving company in the world as a result of owning and operating its own razor factory in Eisfeld, Germany, and offering products direct to consumers at Harrys.com in the US, Canada, and the UK. In 2016, Harry’s products launched in 1,800 Target stores nationwide, as well as on Target.com.
Alliance Consumer Growth (“ACG”) is a leading growth equity fund providing capital and value-added partnership to the most promising emerging consumer product and retail brands. Notable brands that ACG successfully partnered with as an early investor include Shake Shack (later completed an IPO as NYSE: SHAK), Babyganics (later acquired by SC Johnson), Krave Jerky (later acquired by Hershey’s), Suja Juice (later acquired by Coca-Cola), barkTHINS (later acquired by Hershey’s), Tata Harper Beauty, Pacifica Beauty, Nudestix, among others.
WHY: In addition to fueling Harry’s continued growth in shaving and grooming, and building its product portfolio and team, this investment will enable Harry’s to fulfill its vision to build a next-generation CPG company, investing in, building, and owning a portfolio of modern CPG brands across multiple categories.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “We are delighted to partner with ACG through this latest round of financing for Harry’s,” said Andy Katz-Mayfield, co-founder of Harry’s. “ACG has an exceptional track record in partnering with best-in-class emerging brands and helping them grow. We believe their expertise and network in consumer products is very complementary and value-added to our company as we continue to scale.”
“Harry’s epitomizes the type of game changing entrepreneurial consumer brand we love to back,” said Josh Goldin, co-founder of ACG. “The Harry’s team is solving a problem for consumers by providing best-in-category personal care and shaving products for a lower price than those offered by legacy ‘Big Shaving’ companies. We are thrilled to join the Harry’s family and be part of their mission.”
“We’ve built a lot of infrastructure at Harry’s that we think we can leverage into new categories,” Jeff Raider, one of Harry’s founders, said in a telephone interview to the New York Times. “It’s something that we’ve been excited about for a long time, and we’re now at a point in our business where we can act on it.”
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