A&M Capital Partners-Backed Worldwise Acquires FurHaven

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Press release: A&M Capital Partners

A&M Capital Partners (AMCP), a middle-market private equity investment fund that is part of the A&M Capital platform, together with A&M Capital Opportunities Fund, an affiliated fund, recently announced that Worldwise, an AMCP portfolio company, has acquired FurHaven Pet Products, Inc., a leader in the pet industry in e-commerce.

After the close of the transaction, FurHaven will operate under the Worldwise platform, which was acquired by AMCP in September 2021.

Headquartered in Bellingham, Washington, FurHaven is a leading North American eCommerce platform for pet accessories, including bedding, home and travel supplies, apparel and more. FurHaven is also an innovator in branded product development, providing creative supply chain solutions to both eCommerce-centric businesses and omni-channel brick and mortar retailers.

Worldwise, headquartered in Novato, California, is one of the leading platforms in the pet supplies market. Worldwise offers retailers a complete, branded one-stop-shop solution that serves the majority of their pet supply merchandising needs and provides high-quality, thoughtful, fun and eco-sustainable products that address both the joys and challenges of pet parenthood. Serving a wide range of categories such as cat toys, pet bedding, dog toys, cat scratchers, and travel accessories, Worldwise’s growing roster of leading award-winning brands include SmartyKat, TrustyPup, Petlinks, goDog, SHERPA, Guaranteed On-Board, PoochPlanet and Pawscout. Founded in 1990, Worldwise leverages deep industry experience, strong retailer relationships and significant amounts of consumer data to help create quality products inspired by design, innovation and value.

The Worldwise acquisition of FurHaven will create a leading omni-channel company able to leverage multiple in-house capabilities across its entire product portfolio including toys, pet beds, chews, cat, travel and other key categories. With the addition of FurHaven, Worldwise will significantly increase the size and scale of the total business allowing it to better serve its customer base, and enter new markets and product categories.

After the close of the transaction, FurHaven will operate as a separate brand under the Worldwise platform, which will continue to be led by current Worldwise CEO Kevin Fick. Under Kevin’s leadership Worldwise expects to continue to pursue additional acquisition opportunities to grow its platform, reach and product offerings. FurHaven’s Founder and CEO, Eric Heilborn, will join Kevin and the Worldwise management team focusing on driving the collective suite of brands’ e-commerce initiatives.

“Eric and his team have done a fantastic job to create a leader across pet accessories which has experienced phenomenal growth over the past few years,” said Ryan McCarthy, partner at AMCP. “We’re incredibly pleased to bring Eric and his fantastic team under the Worldwise platform to create a category leader that will be able to leverage AMCP’s deep expertise in the pet industry to further advance Worldwise’s strategy and expansion. Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in demand for premium, high-quality pet products, and we look forward to continuing to support the Worldwise platform to take advantage of the exciting trends in their product categories.”

“The FurHaven team and I are thrilled to be joining Worldwise, allowing us to leverage our complementary skill sets and market presence to grow the platform,” said Heilborn. “Pet parents are increasingly looking to learn more about their pets’ needs and are seeking to purchase product solutions to meet these needs.  As a combined platform, we believe that Worldwise will be well suited for continued success in this marketplace through innovative pet solutions across a broad product offering across multiple channels.”

“The addition of FurHaven to the Worldwise platform is incredibly exciting news for our team and Pet Parents everywhere,” added Fick. “Since we joined forces with AMCP in September 2021, we have been impressed by their in-depth knowledge of the pet industry through their investment in BrightPet and their vision for Wordwise’s future. We believe that the acquisition of FurHaven is the start of an amazing journey for our collective brands united under the Worldwise platform and we are looking forward to fast-tracking our growth as we significantly increase the size of our business through this combination. Together we expect to develop even more highly innovative, high-quality products across cat and dog accessories, while also meeting our customers’ needs wherever they are looking to purchase our products – online or in store.”

Kirkland & Ellis provided legal counsel to AMCP.  Greenberg Traurig, LLP acted as legal counsel to FurHaven. Aramar Capital Group, LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to FurHaven.