FROST BROOKS DELIVERS FOR PARCEL MONKEY GROUP

Completes first deal with significant capital raising for one of the UK’s fastest growing e-commerce services

Illustrates Frost Brooks’ very selective approach to investing in high-growth, scalable businesses

Frost Brooks, the boutique private equity firm co-founded by mid-market private equity specialists Miles Frost and Peter Brooks, has completed its first deal with a significant capital raising for Parcel Monkey, one of the UK’s fastest growing e-commerce service businesses.

The new investment, which included commitments from Frost Brooks’ founders and also from the firm’s high-calibre network of HNW individuals and powerful family offices, will enable The Parcel Monkey Group to accelerate its UK growth and explore expansion overseas. It will provide the funds to help complete the development and boost the brand awareness of its new services and enhance the company’s ability to capitalise on a very busy Christmas period and ensure it has the capital to fulfil the next stage of its ambitious expansion strategy.

The Parcel Monkey Group, established by successful serial e-commerce entrepreneur Nav Ramiah, is a fast-expanding e-commerce services business. Its parcel delivery comparison service, Parcel Monkey, gives customers access to the cheapest delivery rates in the UK. Parcel Monkey achieves big discounts from its partner premium courier companies such as DHL, Parcel Force and City Link, by grouping customers’ shipments and booking them through one account, passing these savings on to its customers.

Parcel Monkey is on track to becoming the biggest online portal for parcel delivery services in the UK, with 300,000 registered customers and facilitating over 600,000 parcel deliveries, saving customers millions of pounds over the last year. The company offers parcel delivery services within the UK and over 255 International destinations.

Parcel Monkey’s sister services, Cloud Fulfilment, which launched earlier this year and Kong, which will be launched at the e-Commerce Expo this week, are designed to help e-commerce businesses grow whatever their size. Cloud Fulfilment provides a cheap, pay-as-you-go product storage, pick-and-pack and dispatch service and offers a low cost multi-channel fulfilment platform that links seamlessly with existing sales channels such as eBay, Amazon and customers own websites. S
Kong is an easy-to-use e-commerce platform, giving users the ability to create and customise their own online store, process payments, and ship parcels/goods at very low costs within the UK and internationally. It is also already integrated with Parcel Monkey and Cloud Fulfilment. It includes Parcel Monkey’s free multi-channel management and carrier selection software and also easily integrates with the most popular payment gateways. Customers can build their website and start selling that same day.
E-commerce is the fastest growing retail market in Europe, with sales in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Spain expected to reach a combined total of £111.2 billion in 2014 (€155.3 bn or $212.8 bn), according to the Centre for Retail Research, provides authoritative and expert research and analysis of the retail and service sectors in Britain, Europe and globally.

The European online market is dominated by the UK, Germany and France which together are responsible for 81.3% of European sales in these eight countries. Last year the UK’s e-commerce market enjoyed the second highest growth – beaten only by Germany – of close to 17% to £38.8 billion and this year it is forecast to grow some 16% to close to £45 billion.

Frost Brooks invests between £1-10 million of growth, equity-release and buyout capital in established, profitable, scalable, and high-growth companies with international aspirations. Its investors include some of the most senior people in business, who can add real value and help accelerate growth. Both founders commit their own capital to every deal and Frost Brooks carefully targets businesses that have the potential to deliver superior returns for its select group of HNW and family office investors.

Miles Frost, Managing Partner, Frost Brooks, commented:
“We are delighted that our first investment is backing such a revolutionary, exciting business as The Parcel Monkey Group. Our ethos is to be very rigorous and patient in assessing investment opportunities for our influential network of family offices and high-net worth individuals. We believe we could not have started with a better business and entrepreneur than Nav’s Parcel Monkey Group. It has a revolutionary, market-leading customer proposition, exciting new services and is globally scalable. At Frost Brooks we are not tied to any deal platform, our interests are completely aligned with our fellow investors and the entrepreneurs we back. We have no outside shareholder so can decide the timing of our investments and exits based on what is best for the businesses we back. As personal investors in the business we ultimately want to help The Parcel Monkey Group become as large as possible, and are not overly focused on how long that takes.”

Nav Ramiah, CEO, The Parcel Monkey Group, commented:
“This is a great deal for us and I think it’s a great statement of faith in the business and its excellent potential that we have succeeded in securing this investment. Frost Brooks, with the investors and advisors they bring with them, will make a huge contribution to our business and help to accelerate our growth. We are on track to be the biggest online parcel delivery service in the UK and we have some exciting new services that we are about to launch. E-commerce is one of the most exciting and high-growth areas of the UK economy and last year was the second fastest expanding market in Europe so it offers us great opportunities to build and scale the business.”