- The Bulgarian e-commerce logistics, courier, and fulfillment partner to players in CEE – euShipments, announced that it acquired a majority stake in the Croatian startup for fulfillment and logistics – Pick & Pack.
- The news marks the first acquisition for euShipments and an important step in its development strategy to consolidate a leading position in the eCommerce markets across the CEE region.
- This acquisition was conducted in partnership with the growth equity fund BlackPeak Capital, which invested €7.5M in euShipments in 2022 to enable the startup to accelerate its growth through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion in Central, Eastern, and Western European markets.
“While in the first years of the development of euShipments, a large part of our customers was from the Balkan region – Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, today we have customers from all over Europe. With sales representatives in several countries, nowadays we can confidently define the company as international. After our partnership with BlackPeak Capital, it was only a matter of time before we made our first acquisition, which is now already a fact,” Svetlozar Dimitrov, co-founder and CEO of euShipments, comments on the deal.
In the past year, euShipments doubled its capacity by opening a new warehouse in Budapest, Hungary, alongside several other partner warehouses across Europe and its main hub – in Russe, Bulgaria. Following this accelerated growth, euShipments experienced a need to expand its operational base and fulfillment locations.
The Croatian market was the next natural step in euShipments’ growth strategy. Following the country’s recent acceptance of the Euro and its entry into the Schengen Area, Croatia is expected to open up more growth opportunities for the e-commerce logistics sector.
Pick & Pack is one of the leading e-commerce fulfillment operators in Croatia. Founded by Matej Javorek in 2020, the startup takes care of storage, processing orders from the webshop, packaging, sending invoices, and delivery.
What is the role of VCs in startup M&As?
“The deal with Pick & Pack is part of our core investment strategy to help our portfolio companies accelerate their growth via targeted acquisitions that leverage their capabilities, geographical focus, and financials. With this deal we supported euShipments’ team with all phases of the deal process: from the initial strategic rationale, analysis, and structuring to negotiation, execution, and integration of the transaction within the group,” Angel Stefanov, Investment Director at Black Peak Capital shares for The Recursive.
According to Ivailo Gospodinov, Managing Partner at BlackPeak Capital, one of the factors that brings the highest value to the portfolio founders of the fund, is the expertise and the proven track record of the partners in M&As.
“After nearly 20 years of international experience, we have built ourselves a strong technical know-how, well-established negotiation style, and network of key contacts all over Europe. When investing in a company we do our best to share all of it and enable their growth,” he highlights.
The deal was also conducted with the support of TPA Croatia, which acted as an advisor on financial and tax due diligence matters, as well as Schoenherr, which provided legal counseling.
The future plans of the e-commerce logistics scaleup
euShipments has built a network that covers over 27 European countries and operates with 12 fulfillment centers across the continent.
“Our development strategy is to team up with logistics companies that already apply similar approaches and share our values and vision of success. The acquisition of Pick & Pack is a great example that will be beneficial to both companies but most importantly to our customers. Sharing resources and business knowledge will improve the quality and reliability of our service, thus establishing us as the right logistics partner for every online merchant selling in Europe” Lora Dimitrova, co-founder of euShipments, explains.
