MILAN — Italian sustainable shoe model and consultancy ACBC — recognized for its modular sneakers engineered with a zipper system that ties collectively the only real to a number of variants of the higher half — has discovered an investor.
The corporate stated Thursday that it has offered a majority stake to Gyrus Capital, a European funding agency working within the well being care and sustainability sectors.
Monetary particulars of the deal — anticipated to shut within the second quarter of the yr — weren’t disclosed.
ACBC cofounders Gio Giacobbe and Edoardo Iannuzzi will stay on board as minority buyers and of their govt roles of chief govt officer and chief innovation officer, respectively.
A Round Science Firm and B Corp enterprise, since 2020 and 2021, respectively, ACBC had carved a three-pronged enterprise mannequin within the years since its founding in 2018.
In 2023, the latest monetary figures out there, ACBC’s total enterprise generated gross sales of 15 million euros.
Sustainability consultancy operations for style manufacturers represented about 50 % of yearly gross sales, the Made in ACBC third-party manufacturing enterprise amounted to 45 % of revenues, whereas the rest was generated by the owned shoe model’s operations.
It’s understood that the latter division is to be wound down, though the corporate didn’t elaborate additional when requested about it.
Signaling an acceleration in its sustainability consultancy enterprise, final yr ACBC linked with RTG Consulting Group on a strategic partnership to arrange operations in Asia, offering the shoppers of the Singapore-, Shanghai- and Paris-based agency with eco-leaning advisory.
“ACBC is a transparent business chief, combining visionary management, deep technical experience, and a robust dedication to transformation,” stated Raffaele Magliocca, principal at Gyrus Capital. “We’re excited and proud to companion with such a pushed and proficient crew, and we imagine ACBC is uniquely positioned to form the way forward for sustainable innovation and drive the round transition throughout the style sector and past,” he supplied.
Primarily based in Geneva, Switzerland, Gyrus Capital invests in companies with a robust sustainability dedication via transactions within the 50 million to 500 million vary. ACBC marks the agency’s first funding within the style sector.
“This partnership with Gyrus Capital is a defining second for ACBC,” stated CEO Giacobbe. “We’re proud to affix forces with a agency that shares our values and long-term imaginative and prescient. Their worldwide expertise and concentrate on folks, companies, and sustainability can be key in scaling our affect and accelerating the shift in direction of extra accountable and forward-thinking style and way of life industries,” he supplied.
ACBC has advanced from a start-up counting on capital will increase, together with Kickstarter crowdfunding, to a self-sufficient enterprise over the previous 4 years.
“This new funding marks a pivotal milestone in ACBC’s growth, empowering the corporate to speed up its development trajectory via a mixture of natural enlargement and focused acquisitions. The main target stays on diversifying the service providing and increasing in new markets, driving steady innovation, and reinforcing ACBC’s place as a world chief in sustainability,” the corporate stated in a press release.
