Simba Sleep has embarked upon a breakneck international expansion, with a presence in more than a dozen countries, including China. Some investors were angered by the upbeat nature of the message communicated to them in October with so much of the current funding round yet to be secured. The company continues to expect to break even in its home market this year, and has gained greater distribution by partnering with Bensons for Beds, one of the biggest mattress retailers on the UK high street. Launched in 2016, Simba Sleep is one of a new breed of online mattress retailers which aspire to premium valuations by virtue of their business models and the advanced spring technology they deploy in their products. In a message to investors late last year, it said that such an exit could value Simba at a level "potentially significantly north of £1bn".
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It announced the appointment of Mr Leighton, the Co-op Group chairman, last summer, and continued to tell shareholders that its Series C fundraising would be the last meaningful capital injection before a sale or float. Simba attracted huge publicity when it signed the Real Madrid galactico Gareth Bale as the face of its brand. People close to Simba said that Mr Leighton's arrival had already delivered meaningful improvements to the performance of the company, including a halving of customer acquisition costs and the consolidation of four corporate offices into one.
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"We have had to adapt our fundraising plan to accommodate the above, whilst ensuring we remain on track to hit full profitability in the UK this year as per our business plan."
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"These included macroeconomic and political uncertainty, as well as the well-publicised decline in the market capitalisation of other e-commerce and direct-to-consumer businesses. In a statement issued to Sky News, Steve Reid, Simba's co-founder and chief executive, said: "The funding environment became increasingly challenging after November 2018 due to a number of external factors. Weakening sentiment towards Simba has been partly a consequence of the declining share price of Eve Sleep, its publicly quoted rival.Įve recently raised millions of pounds from investors but on Monday its shares were trading at a level which meant that it had a market value of just £15.7m. "Leighton and Wray must still believe there's a viable business there or they wouldn't be underwriting such a substantial chunk of the new funding," the source added. One source said that Mr Leighton, one of the UK's most respected business figures, would remain as chairman of the company. Insiders said that lukewarm investor feedback had prompted the latest savage cut to Simba's value, which could entail a delay of several years to a sale or stock market flotation.
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