News Release
Carlyle Makes Strategic Growth Investment in Leading Ecommerce Marketplace Enablement Platform and Retail Seller Pharmapacks
NEW YORK – November 12, 2020 — Pharmapacks, LLC ("Pharmapacks" or "Company"), a leading ecommerce enablement platform and retail seller for brands across major ecommerce marketplaces, today announced a strategic investment of more than $250 million from global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) to accelerate the Company’s growth plans. The growth investment places Pharmapacks’ enterprise value at approximately $1.1 billion.
Pharmapacks was founded as a single brick and mortar pharmacy and has since evolved into a platform providing brands with best-in-class ecommerce capabilities. Since 2010, Pharmapacks has cultivated extensive partnerships with consumer brands across ecommerce marketplaces in North America, including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target, Google and Facebook.
Powered by its proprietary platform, Pharmapacks is trusted by millions of customers to provide for their daily needs. After reaching over $250 million in sales in 2019, Pharmapacks is on a current run rate to achieve approximately 60% year-over-year growth and, with the opening of an additional 230k square foot replenishment center this month, Pharmapacks is expected to fuel accelerated growth in Q4.
"Pharmapacks is experiencing unprecedented growth with massive market support and highly attractive industry dynamics,” said Andrew Vagenas, Chief Executive Officer of Pharmapacks. "We are thrilled that our partnership with Carlyle, a world-class investment firm with extensive connectivity, data and global resources, will provide us with an opportunity to take significant steps to enter the next phase of our growth plans."
“We’re thrilled to partner with another founder-led growth company, leveraging the global resources of the Carlyle platform to support Pharmapacks’ acceleration,” said Jay Sammons, Carlyle’s Head of Global Consumer, Media & Retail. “We are focused on identifying companies that are growing significantly faster than the market and benefiting from strong secular tailwinds. As a company sitting at the cross section of a number of attractive trends, including the massive and rapid expansion of ecommerce, we have strong conviction in Pharmapacks’ ability to achieve sustainable growth.”
“We’re excited to partner with Andrew and the Pharmapacks management team to execute a multi-dimensional growth strategy for the Company,” said Yue Bonnet, a Principal specializing in Consumer, Media & Retail at Carlyle. “We believe there are significant opportunities to support the Company’s value creation plans by helping to rapidly increase the number of consumer brand partners, building out the data and analytics platform and increasing capacity through additional warehouse expansion.”
The investment in Pharmapacks is a continuation of Carlyle’s long-term global commitment to Consumer, Media & Retail in which it has invested more than $21.5 billion of equity since inception. Equity capital for the investment came from Carlyle Partners VII, an $18.5 billion fund that makes majority and strategic minority investments primarily in the U.S. in targeted industries, including Consumer, Media & Retail.
J.P. Morgan served as lender and advisor to the Company.
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About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $230 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2020, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 1,800 people in 30 offices across six continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
About Pharmapacks
Pharmapacks, LLC is a leading ecommerce enablement platform and retail seller for brands across major ecommerce marketplaces with proprietary technology that empowers brands with a complete and cost-effective logistics, fulfillment, marketing and sales solution. Pharmapacks has a premier team of ecommerce experts with over 10 years' experience and 850 employees connecting consumers to their favorite brands on online marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Google, eBay and Facebook, becoming one of the largest marketplace sellers in North America. Pharmapacks serves as a "launch pad" for emerging brands by giving a select amount of lesser-known brands access to the Pharmapacks' e-commerce platform and consumer base. This enables brands to focus on product research and development, while Pharmapacks strategically sets competitive price points and builds a connection between the consumer and the brand.
Media Contacts:
Brittany Berliner
Brittany.Berliner@carlyle.com
+1 (212) 813 4839
Jeremy Watkins
jwatkins@pharmapacks.com
+1 (212) 430 5050