TechCrunch October 6, 2014
Global printing heavyweight Vistaprint has acquired a $25 million minority stake in Brazilian web-printing startup Printi. The purchase marks Vistaprint’s entry into Latin America, after assuming market leadership in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Vistaprint bought out all of Printi’s investors’ stake and a portion of the founders’ stake in the company, but the founders still maintain a majority stake of the company and control the board. “They wanted to acquire us 100 percent but we wanted to make it closer to what a VC deal would look like,” said co-founder and co-CEO Mate Pencz tells me on a call from Recife. “We’re staying on board and staying completely independent.”
Vistaprint’s CEO Robert Kearne and VP of Portfolio Management Jeremie Profeta will join Pencz and his co-founder and co-CEO Florian Hagenbuch on the board. “Our investment is an important strategic step and we look forward to growing aggressively in Brazil,” said Profeta.
The investment comes at precisely the time Printi is outgrowing its model of outsourcing fulfillment to large printing factories, and the founders decided to vertically integrate production and construct their own printing factory in São Paulo.Read More