Dive Brief:
- Adding another brand to its portfolio, Heyday, the consumer products development company, has acquired ZitSticka for an undisclosed sum, the company announced on Wednesday.
- The move comes after ZitSticka entered Ulta and Target stores and Heyday launched Risa, a cookware collection, in partnership with actress Eva Longoria. Over the past three years, ZitSticka has expanded internationally beyond its initial acne patches into health supplements, body washes and other topical products.
- Heyday has grown its employee headcount to 240 workers in five countries, grown its revenue 125% year over year and introduced more than 400 new products this year, per the press release.
Dive Insight:
In a statement, ZitSticka co-founder Daniel Kaplan noted that the company hadn’t planned to sell the business to anyone once it went to market, but meeting Heyday ultimately convinced the startup that its new parent company would take its growth to the next level.
“The ZitSticka team has built an incredible business in three short years, and Heyday is the perfect partner to build ZitSticka into a household brand name thanks to our platform capabilities in omnichannel distribution, product innovation, and brand marketing,” Griffin Gordon, chief business officer of Heyday, said in a statement.
So far, Heyday has raised $800 million from investors such as The Raine Group, Premji Invest and General Catalyst, per the press release. Last year, Heyday raised $70 million in May and raised another $555 million in November. The company said it will use the funds toward buying and developing brands, improving its underlying technology and logistics operations and investing more in its current brands.
As Heyday raises money to acquire and grow brands, so have other third-party marketplaces seeking DTC brands. In May 2021, Perch, another digital commerce company that buys direct-to-consumer brands, raised $775 million in Series A funding from the Softbank Vision Fund, Spark Capital and Victory Park Capital. That same month, The Fascination, another DTC marketplace, also raised $1 million in seed funding. The platform has supported popular brands like Allbirds, Warby Parker and Brooklinen since its launch in 2020.
