THG (formerly The Hut Group) owns online beauty and nutrition brands such as Lookfantastic, Mankind and Myprotein and licenses its e-commerce platform to clients including Unilever. The company plans to form THG Ingenuity, a technology subsidiary described by its founder as a "social media influencer platform" to promote products for THG and third-party brands. THG has said Ingenuity will provide digital services including hosting, studio content, translation services and beauty product development and manufacturing. The business is pursuing global expansion and announced the acquisition of Bentley Laboratories for $255 million, which it said will boost revenues by $77 million next year. Financially, THG recorded sales of £1.6 billion in 2020 (up more than 40%) but posted a pretax loss of £535 million. The company is undertaking structural separation of key businesses to maximise shareholder value as it scales Ingenuity and its service offerings. The Hut Group operates e-commerce sites including TheHut.com and Zavvi.com and provides its platform to blue-chip retail partners such as ASDA, Woolworths, Argos, Tesco and WHSmith. The five-year-old company has grown turnover by more than 150% each year since starting. It secured a £14 million institutional investment via a Pre-IPO placing to fund further acquisitions and expansion prior to a flotation. The cash will be used to pursue acquisitions and to expand operations ahead of a planned IPO. As part of its growth plans the company intends to recruit an additional 100–150 staff over the next 12–18 months. The raise and board additions are positioned to support scaling and M&A activity.

Total raised

$1.6B

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2021