Kapten & Son gets investor for the first time

The Cologne-based start-up was self-financed for six years. Now the French investment company Ardian Growth is participating as a minority shareholder.

Start-up Kapten & Son has so far self-financed the development and expansion of its own eyewear business. Now the company has brought an investor on board for the first time: French investment company Ardian Growth will become a minority shareholder in Kapten & Son, an investment amount is not known.

The start-up plans to use the money to expand into other European countries and develop new products. In addition to eyewear, Kapten & Son now offers another 500 products online and in seven stores in Germany.

Kapten & Son was founded in 2014 by Fabian Deventer, Johannes Theobald and Artjem Weissbeck at the University of Münster. The plan was to start a small shop for friends, but today it has become a company with 150 employees. Last year, according to the company, sales increased by 60 percent to over 50 million euros.

Ardian Growth is not the first investor to want to get in, but it is the one that convinced the founders first. "Now, however, we have found an ideal partner in Ardian Growth, which has already demonstrated its high ambitions and a long-term perspective with other companies. They know the European market and the e-commerce landscape down to the smallest detail and in a very data-driven way," explains co-founder Weissbeck.

For Ardian Growth, it is the first investment in a German company. The investment company sees great potential in the Cologne-based start-up: "As one of the leading e-commerce companies of the new generation, Kapten & Son has all the prerequisites to continue growing in the structurally profitable online market," says Romain Chiudini, Director of Ardian Growth.