Digital Greeting Card Startup Moonpig Plans $1.6 Billion London IPO

Online greeting card and gifts retailer Moonpig is planning a $1.6 billion initial public offering (IPO) for a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

“Our data-powered technology platform makes it incredibly easy for our customers to create more special moments for the people they care about,” Nickyl Raithatha, CEO of Moonpig Group, said in a London Stock Exchange statement. 

“With our curated gifts and personalized cards, high-speed logistics and unique predictive insights into gifting intent, we make the art of remembering, choosing and creating the most thoughtful card and gift as effortless as possible,” Raithatha said, adding that the company’s “strong track record” and myriad growth opportunities helped it feel “confident” about its move to go public.

Raithatha will likely reap £11 million ($15 million) from the IPO, The Guardian reported. Chair Kate Swann is anticipated to make £7 million ($9.5 million).

U.S. investors BlackRock and Dragoneer will earmark £130 million ($177.1 million) for Moonpig shares when trading begins sometime in February. Moonpig, also the operator of the Netherlands’ Greetz brand, is planning to list at least a quarter of the company on the exchange’s main market.

Founded in 2000, Moonpig has roughly 450 employees and will likely publish its full IPO prospectus next week. The company has 60 percent of the U.K. digital greeting card market, according to OC&C, per the Guardian. 

Moonpig’s Founder Nick Jenkins, a former commodities trader at Glencore and Dragon’s Den, named the firm after his schoolboy nickname, the Guardian reported. In 2011, he sold the business to the online photo printing company Photobox, making £42 million. The company was later acquired by the private equity firms Electra and Exponent. Photobox and Moonpig were divided into separate companies in 2019.

With more than 12 million customers who order some 46 million cards and seven million gifts a year, Moonpig is the U.K.’s biggest digital greeting card merchant. Its eCommerce site features more than 20,000 cards and a wide variety of gifts, according to its website.

The stationery chain Papyrus announced in January that it will shutter all of its retail locations, which number about 260 stores across the U.S. and Canada. Parent company Schurman Retail Group reportedly tried to renegotiate lease terms to no avail.