LionsHome, operator of one of Europe’s leading product comparison platforms in the home & living vertical, realizes its first growth partnership in cooperation with investment group Waterland Private Equity. In February 2022, Waterland acquired a majority stake in the Berlin-based group. The current acquisition of Fashiola forms a cornerstone of a long-term buy-&-build strategy to establish LionsHome as a leading, pan-European commerce content group and already brings the group up to more than 100 million visits per year. The seller of the stake is online classifieds company Lifull Connect; its current Head of Tech, Javier Pérez, as well as Head of Operations, Macarena Quinzaños, will continue to lead the company in the future. Further financial details of the transaction will not be disclosed.
Fashiola and its Dutch sister-brand Kleding.nl were founded in 2012. The company aggregates the online offering of a wide range of leading fashion brands into a unique product comparison platform, enabling its customers to quickly and easily discover and compare high-quality clothing, footwear as well as accessories. Today, the company is active in more than 20 countries, and with more than 60 million visits per year it is one of the leading international product comparison platforms in the fashion sector.
LionsHome GmbH was founded in 2014 by Christoph Königer and Michael Röcker in Berlin and is currently active in ten countries. With about 40 million visits per year, LionsHome is one of the leading product comparison platforms in the European home & living vertical. In addition to household and office furniture, LionsHome also offers a wide range of accessories, decorative items, lamps, garden furniture and much more.
In February 2022, Waterland entered a partnership with LionsHome and initiated a long-term growth campaign. The acquisition of Fashiola now marks the first strategic cornerstone for developing LionsHome into a comprehensive commerce content platform, which aggregates a wide range of digital publishing models under one umbrella. In addition to the existing focus on the home & living vertical, the partnership with Fashiola drives the expansion of LionsHome into its second e-commerce vertical: fashion and accessories.
“We are very pleased to welcome Fashiola into the LionsHome group. With this acquisition, we are not only able to realize our first add-on within a very short timeframe. Combining our strengths and using them to expand our second e-commerce verticals at an international scale also marks a significant milestone of our growth journey”, says LionsHome CEO Michael Roecker.
“Fashiola has recorded monumental growth over the past two years. Having worked directly with the team during this time, I could not be prouder of their accomplishments,” Mauricio Silber, CEO LIFULL Connect, explains. “The most exciting aspect is the fact Fashiola is only beginning to reach its full potential. However, fashion is not part of our core strategy at LIFULL Connect, so it was hugely important for us to find a partner who could help the brand continue its promising trajectory. LionsHome was a perfect match in that regard.”
“With a very ambitious team, LionsHome is already today one of the leading and fastest-growing product comparison platforms in the European home & living vertical. The partnership with Fashiola, which is an international leader for product comparison in the fashion industry, is a cornerstone for LionsHome to build a digital publishing platform focused on commerce content.”, says Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Managing Partner at Waterland.
