Philip Butler MIT alumni and cofounder of Dragonfly started out in medicine. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from MIT and an MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He was a Postbaccalaureate Fellow at the National Institutes of Health – Child Psychiatry Branch and worked at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, St. Raphael’s Campus as an intern.
Although a promising career in the medical field awaited him, Butler was pulled in another direction. After facing difficulty locating an obscure textbook during medical school, he founded Veya, one of Amazon’s top algorithmic sellers. Veya is a data-driven tech company that searches for supply gaps for customer products online and works to provide global access to products consumers want and need, and now boasts annual revenue exceeding $60 million.
While developing a revolutionary algorithmic process to help people find the products they need from across the globe, faster and more affordable than ever before – and propelling that into a multi-million dollar company – would be enough for some people, Butler saw the potential for more.
Philip Butler partnered with his Veya CTO, Jeremy Todd, to create Dragonfly Commerce, which specializes in acquiring and scaling standout e-commerce brands, priding itself on identifying unique brands that truly enrich people’s lives.
Dragonfly has received significant attention and funding since its inception in 2019 (they raised $29 million during their initial financing round), but now they have received a proprietary investment from the Flagship Buyout Fund of L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm. L Catterton’s growth investment brings Dragonfly’s total funding to over $500 million of incremental equity and debt financing, primarily intended to fund future growth and M&A.
This partnership promises exciting growth for both Dragonfly and L Catterton. Dragonfly acquires, incubates, licenses, and scales standout consumer brands using proprietary algorithms and technologies. They are also able to develop new products and build de novo brands and products in-house. L Catterton’s financial support will accelerate the processes at Dragonfly, allowing them to acquire brands more quickly, as well as attract the best digital and brand talent.
L Catterton, which has its own stellar track record of brand investing, views the investment as a true partnership:
“Dragonfly has created a remarkable platform with multiple levers – both organic and inorganic – to drive growth within a dynamic and rapidly-expanding environment,” said Nikhil Thukral, a Managing Partner in L Catterton’s Flagship Buyout Fund. “We admire Dragonfly’s thoughtful approach to brand-building and are impressed by the people, processes, and capabilities that have been built to date. We’re thrilled to have found like-minded partners in Philip and Jeremy as we look to actualize the massive opportunity we collectively see to reimagine how to build and scale consumer brands.”
Dragonfly was represented by Nutter in the transaction with L Catterton. Nutter is a Boston-based law firm that provides legal counsel to industry-leading companies, early-stage entrepreneurs, institutions, foundations, and families. Nutter’s corporate law practice handles a variety of equity and debt financings, as well as the full range of M&A and private equity transactions, including representing buyers and sellers in auctions and bid processes, mergers, asset sales, stock purchases, leveraged buyouts, roll-ups, joint ventures, PIPEs, going-private transactions, exchanges of securities, friendly and hostile tender offers, and proxy contests.
For more information about Dragonfly, you can visit dragonflycommerce.com.
For more information about L Catterton, you can visit lcatterton.com.
For more information about Nutter, you can visit nutter.com.
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