Influential streetwear and youth culture title Highsnobiety has raised an $8.5 million Series A round led by London-based venture firm Felix Capital. The investment will go into investing in new technology and digital media in niche verticals, from sneakers to music, the capturing of more extensive data and analytics as well as into the world of curated editorial and long-form video. The international law firm Taylor Wessing advised Felix Capital on all legal aspects of the financing.
Highsnobiety, founded in Berlin by David Fischer, employs a team of 100 people at offices in New York, Berlin and London, that runs Highsnobiety’s main site, a content production arm geared towards brand marketers and produces a twice-yearly print magazine. Its main site attracts 9 million unique monthly visitors. Online audience management website SimilarWeb ranks Highsnobiety among the top four fashion sites in most major European countries, the United States and Brazil.
The backing for Highsnobiety follows digital lifestyle investments by Felix Capital including Farfetch, an online marketplace; blog-turned-industry insider news site The Business of Fashion; and Goop, actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle marketing brand. London based VC Felix Capital was set up in 2015 by Frederic Court and since then has raised capital of approx. 300 million US dollars.
“We are delighted to partner with an influential media brand like Highsnobiety, whose fast-growing, global community represents the next generation of trend setters and early adopters,” said Frederic Court, founder and managing partner of Felix Capital. “We very much enjoyed working with the Taylor Wessing VC team who perfectly combined legal excellence with in depth industry know-how.” He said. It was the first time that Felix Capital mandated the Taylor Wessing VC team which was led by Berlin Partner Norman Röchert.
Taylor Wessing: Lead Partner: Dr. Norman Röchert (Partner, Corporate, Venture Capital, Berlin), Christian Ahrendt (Associate), Dr. Sebastian Klabunde (Senior Associate) (both Corporate), Nico Jänicke (Partner, Employment Law), Dr. Gregor Schmidt (Partner, Technology, Media & Telecoms) (all Berlin)
