DLA Piper advises Graphite Capital on sale of Wonderbly to Penguin Random House

DLA Piper has advised Graphite Capital (Graphite), the leading investor in UK mid-sized businesses, on the sale of its investment in Wonderbly, the world-leading publisher of premium personalised books, to Penguin Random House.

Founded in 2013, Wonderbly pioneered a direct-to-consumer publishing model that blends proprietary technology with creative, print-on-demand production capabilities. With a catalogue of over 150 personalised titles, Wonderbly has sold more than 11 million books in over 140 countries.

Since Graphite’s acquisition of Wonderbly in July 2021, the company has more than doubled revenues and EBITDA, the vast majority of this growth being organic, and is now one of the UK’s fastest-growing independent publishers. Under Graphite’s ownership, Wonderbly has invested heavily in data science, marketing personalisation and pricing optimisation, enabling it to scale while also reducing customer acquisition costs and growing high margin repeat revenues.

Penguin Random House, a leading global trade book publisher, will continue to operate Wonderbly independently within the Group, maintaining its entrepreneurial culture, brand identity and leadership team.

The DLA Piper team advising Graphite was led by Corporate partner John Pryor and supported by partner Danny Westmoreland, associates Joanna Shepherd and Noémie Cetnarowicz and trainee solicitor, Alice Gordon and on publishing and IP aspects by partner Duncan Calow. In the US the team was led by Corporate partner Itai Nevo and supported by Of Counsel Philip Desai.    

DLA Piper Corporate partner, John Pryor, commented: “At DLA Piper we pride ourselves in creating strong partnerships with our clients based on sector excellence and understanding. The success of this deal relied heavily on our deep knowledge of the publishing sector and the seamless counsel we were able to provide between the UK and our colleagues in the US. We are delighted that Wonderbly has found such a supportive new partner in Penguin Random House and look forward to seeing co-founder and CEO. Asi Sharabi, and his team driving its next stage of development, building on the fantastic growth that Graphite helped it achieve over the past four years”.