Ontario Teachers’ Announces Investment in Leading E-Commerce Platform Orva
Toronto and New York (June 28, 2022) – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) announced that it has closed an investment in Orva (the “Company”), a full-service e-commerce platform specializing in the sale of footwear, apparel, accessories, and home products from leading consumer brands. The investment is being made in partnership with Trilantic North America, a leading private equity firm, and the Aizer and Shalom families. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Founded in 1948 as a chain of brick-and-mortar stores, Orva has evolved its business model in parallel to the digitization of the retail landscape. Today, the Company operates as a leading e-tailer, providing its longstanding brand partners with comprehensive e-commerce solutions.
“We are excited to have Ontario Teachers’ support as we enter the next chapter of our company,” said Abe Shalom, President at Orva. “Our partnership with both Ontario Teachers' and Trilantic North America will enable Orva to continue learning alongside trusted professionals and unlock valuable opportunities to accelerate our growth as a full-service e-commerce partner to leading consumer brands.”
“The investment in Orva is consistent with our strategy of investing in the megatrends shaping the future of retailing, and our first in the growing e-commerce facilitator space. We are particularly attracted to Orva given its track record of using data and merchandising expertise to drive incremental online sales for its top-tier brand partners,” said Kevin Mansfield, Senior Managing Director for Consumer, Private Capital at Ontario Teachers’. “We look forward to working closely with the Aizer and Shalom families and Trilantic North America to support the Company in its next stage of growth.”
“Since our original partnership with the Shalom and Aizer families in December 2020, we’ve been impressed with the founders’ ability to drive tremendous growth across existing and new brand partners and product categories, while strategically investing in new hires and IT-related projects to position Orva for continued scaling,” said Jamie Manges, Partner and Head of Consumer at Trilantic North America.
Lee Nussbaum, Managing Director at Trilantic North America, added, “Our partnership with the Shalom and Aizer families exemplifies our strategy of partnering with exceptional founders and families, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the Orva team, alongside the Ontario Teachers’ team, as the Company continues on its impressive growth trajectory.”
About Orva
Orva is a family-owned, full-service e-commerce platform that has actively managed leading brands on the Amazon platform since 2011. Orva provides long term solutions that sustain a brand’s health and drive growth on the Amazon Marketplace through merchandising, optimized content, marketing, design and supply chain management. Since its founding as a retail chain of stores in 1948, the business has been passed on from generation to generation within the Aizer and Shalom families with each succeeding generation upholding the founding fathers’ core focus on Orva’s customers and valuable brand relationships.
For more information, visit www.orva.com.
About Ontario Teachers’
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of C$241.6 billion as at December 31, 2021. We invest in more than 50 countries in everything from equities to real estate to infrastructure and venture growth, to deliver retirement income for 333,000 current and retired teachers in Ontario.
With offices in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, Singapore and Toronto, our more than 350 investment professionals bring deep expertise in industries ranging from agriculture to artificial intelligence. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.7% since the plan’s founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers’, we don’t just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit www.otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.
About Trilantic North America
Trilantic Capital Management L.P. ("Trilantic North America") is a leading, growth-focused middle market private equity firm focused on control and significant minority investments in North America. Trilantic North America's primary investment focus is in the consumer and business services sectors. Trilantic North America has managed six private equity fund families with aggregate capital commitments of $9.7 billion. Trilantic North America has been recognized by Inc. Magazine's 2021 list of Top Founder-Friendly Investors and has been named one of Growthcap’s 2021 Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies. For more information, visit www.trilanticnorthamerica.com.
For more information, please contact:
Orva / Trilantic North America
Claire Walsh
+1 646 818-9177
pro-trilantic@prosek.com
Ontario Teachers’
Dan Madge
Director, External Communications
+1 416 419 1437
media@otpp.com