Snowleader, a French online sales platform for outdoor equipment, announced on April 22 a new fundraising of 15 million euros. An operation carried out half in equity, and the other half via a multi-year commitment from banks, led by the Agricultural credit de Savoie, Crédit Agricole Sud Rhône Alpes and LCL. In 2020, the young company had already raised 10 million euros, with the support of BNP Paribas Développement, Sofimac Régions and 123 Investment Managers.
1.3 million monthly users claimed
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The start-up specializes in B2C sales of three types of equipment, namely outdoor sports, winter sports and ready-to-wear related to the mountain world. It boasts an average annual growth of 32% per year since its creation in 2008, a turnover of 87 million euros and an average monthly traffic of 1.3 million users. The platform is currently available in eight European countries outside of France: the United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, in Spain, and since October 2023, in the Netherlands. Last year, the start-up's turnover was mainly generated abroad.
Snowleader intends to stand out from its competitors through the quality of its customer service. “As soon as we open a country, we have customer service in the language of the country: by email, by chat, but also with a telephone platform, to be able to inform customers about the technicality of the products”, explains Thomas Rouault, founder and CEO of Snowleader. The start-up also focuses on speed of delivery, on D+1 for the whole of Europe. The stock is gathered in a single logistics platform, located near Grenoble (Auvergne Rhône-Alpes).
Strengthen its online presence and its network of physical stores
With this new financing, Snowleader intends to strengthen its presence in Europe, in particular by deploying its platform in Denmark by the end of the year. It also wants to expand its network of physical stores. “We also want to finance our working capital requirement (WCR) for our warehouse, continues Thomas Rouault. Given that 100% of the stock is located in this warehouse, we must be able to have a sufficient level of cash flow.”
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In 2021, the start-up signed a licensing agreement with the South Korean K2, owner of Eider, to produce and distribute its French brand in Europe. Created in 1962, the company was sold by Millet the previous year. “We put the first spring-summer collection online a few weeks ago, and have new products arriving for winter”, explains the founder of Snowleader. With this fundraising, it hopes to develop its own brand offering.
The start-up is targeting a turnover of 150 million euros by 2027. With 150 employees, it finally hopes to recruit around ten people this year.