Furniture and interior design retailer Made has hired Adrian Evans as its new chief financial officer while announcing it has commitments for £40 million of equity funding.
Evans joins from the Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP) Group where he worked for over 10 years in various senior management roles including commercial director, finance director and strategy director.
As finance director of London-based Net-a-Porter, he played a key role in its merger with Milan-based Yoox in 2015.
Evans also played a key part in growing the business from £75 million to £1.7 billion.
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Meanwhile, Made said that as well as a new tier 1 global institutional investor, the £40 million funding round includes commitments from existing investors Partech Ventures, Level Equity and Eight Roads Ventures.
The fundraising also follows another year of growth for the retailer in 2017, which achieved net revenue of £127 million – up 40 per cent year-on-year.
Thi9s round of investment will be used to further accelerate growth and establish Made’s digital brand leadership across Europe as well as the opening of new showrooms to add to the six that currently exist in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.
Made said it was “uniquely positioned” to benefit from the transition from high street to online within the homewares market and to capitalise on growing consumer confidence in digital retail, especially for big ticket categories.
“We continue to scale rapidly across Europe, and I am pleased to confirm that Made.com has reached profitability in 2017 in the UK, France and Benelux, and is now cash flow positive at the group level,” chief executive Philippe Chainieux said.
“We have had a strong start to 2018 and are very excited about the future.
“The funds raised will facilitate faster growth in existing and new markets across Europe.
“While Made continues to evolve, it remains at heart a design brand, committed to creating beautiful products for the home which are affordable and unique.”
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