Should San Francisco-based sustainable shoe brand Allbirds succeed in going public, a Chapel Hill investment firm would see a payday.
That’s because Morgan Creek Capital Partners funneled nearly $4 million into the firm last year through a special purpose vehicle – one that attracted 25 investors, according to a securities filing.
Allbirds said Tuesday it has applied to list its Class A stock on the Nasdaq exchange.
“We have been fortunate to have done a number of these SPVs around individual company deals, and Allbirds is certainly the latest,” Morgan Creek CEO Mark Yusko said Tuesday. “It’s fun when you’re involved in something you use. I’m sitting here staring at my Allbirds on my feet as I’m talking to you.”
Yusko said he’s optimistic for the firm’s chances at success, calling it an “innovative company producing really great products.”
“I think they’ve executed really, really well on their long-term vision and I think the public markets will recognize that,” he said. “I certainly think it is an iconic brand with real innovative products that appeal to a very wide audience and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”
At the time the firm invested, Yusko said the fund earmarked for Allbirds was the result of “a mix of opportunity and demand.”
“There are a lot of people who wanted to get exposure to this space and we’re fortunate, because we came up with some shares of the company that we could make available to investors,” Yusko said.
Allbirds seeks to design eco-friendly footwear from wool. The company, according to its prospectus, has sold more than 8 million pairs of shoes since 2015, growing its net revenue from $126 million in 2018 to $219.3 million in 2020.
If its IPO is successful, it will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol BIRD. The firm has not priced its shares.
While Morgan Creek’s fund could win big, it would be a tiny return in comparison to Allbirds' biggest backers. Securities filings show its top five investors – all with at least a 5 percent stake – are Maveron, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Lerer Hippeau Ventures.
Allbirds is hardly Morgan Creek’s only special purpose vehicle. The firm has raised similar funds earmarked for other firms, such as a $13.5 million vehicle aimed at acquiring a stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. That fund, which closed last year, involved 73 investors.
Morgan Creek has seen a lot of recent success with its investments.
In February, ride share giant Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) announced plans to acquire on-demand alcohol marketplace Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash – another firm in Morgan Creek’s portfolio.
And just in the past several days, Morgan Creek saw another of its investments, Durham regenerative medicine firm Humacyte (Nasdaq: HUMA), go public through a SPAC deal. Morgan Creek funneled more than $6 million into a Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) that’s part of the biotech's SPAC merger.
