Stella Capital acquires a majority stake in By Malina and Soft Goat
Soft Goat AB and By Malina AB have no previous history of co-ownership, but throughout the years been managed in parallel in a shared head office with an engagement between the friends Stephanie Bergström, Erik Magnusson and Malin Ek Andrén. Stella Capital has now stepped in as the main owner of both brands via a new co-owned company.
With Stella Capital as the new main owner of Soft Goat and By Malina, both brands have gained access to financial resources to expand within new global markets, and also a network of e-commerce competence and experience of international expansions of strong brands.
Soft Goat was founded in 2011 by Stephanie Begrström and Erik Magnusson, where Soft Goat at that time was the first straight direct-to-consumer (”DTC”) brand in Sweden. Soft Goat is still operating as a DTC since the brand has not engaged any third-party retailers. From the start, the idea was, and still is, to provide consumers online with qualitative knitted pieces focusing on cashmere. Soft Goat has 15 employees and increased their sales in 2021 by roughly 30% to 7 million EUR, with a profit of approximately 1,2 million EUR.
By Malina was founded in 2010 by the Swedish fashion designer Malin Ek Andrén. The idea from the start was to make Scandinavian fashion more colorful. By Malina has several reputable retailers in several international markets. The brand has also shown increasingly growing sales via By Malina’s e-commerce. The company holds 13 employees and increased its sales in 2021 by 40% to 6 million EUR, with a profit of approximately 1 million EUR.
Stella Capital steps in as majority owner of both Soft Goat and By Malina and will as active owners support the brands in their future growth plans. The companies will be managed as two separate brands through a newly formed and co-owned company. Stephanie Bergström, Erik Magnusson and Malin Ek Andrén will remain responsible for the day-to-day operations and are also shareholders in the new company.
- We have been living and breathing our brand all day, every year, for over ten years now. It has truly been a fun, educational and sometimes challenging experience. With hard work we now hold two prosperous and profitable companies which we now look forward to running together with Stella.
The team behind Stella Capital, founded in 2015, has been active investors in several Nordic e-commerce brands and their eco-systems, such as Nordic Nest, Polhus, Jetshop and Loop54. Stella’s plan is to, through active ownership, develop both fashion companies and expand geographically.
We are happy to be partnering up with the trio of driven and experienced entrepreneurs behind Soft Goat and By Malina.
The companies have in parallel been growing with profitability without any external venture capital. It is exciting to now be a part of the next steps in the companies’ expansion, says Keith Fransson, chairman-elect of the newly formed company group and Partner at Stella Capital.
In addition to Keith Fransson, Alf Thiel Metelius, Partner at Stella Capital, assumes the position as member of the board of directors in the newly formed company, and Bank Bergström, CEO at Nordic Nest and Anders Ullstrand, former CEO of Byredo and acting Chairman at Filippa K, assumes the position as advisors to the group.
Anders Brenner, founder and Partner at Stella Capital, continues:
- Stella Capital believes in continued strong growth within the e-commerce, we appreciate strong DTC-brands that excels in creating strong direct relations to their customers though the right communication in the correct channels with high-quality productions and great knowledge. Soft Goat and By Malina are excellent examples of this.
For further information regarding Soft Goat or By Malina, or any press material, please contact Felicia Kappe at
Felicia.kappe@softgoat.com or Amanda Jarnesjö at Amanda.jarnesjo@bymalina.com
For further information regarding Stella Capital, please contact Anders Brenner at Anders.brenner@stellacapital.se