The price/revenue multiples of comparable transactions suggest Away’s valuation will be materially lower than the $1.4B valuation from its 2019 financing round.
Luggage company Away is reportedly looking for a buyer.
So what will it fetch?
In 2019, the suitcase maker was valued at $1.4B on $150M of trailing revenue — a healthy 9.3x multiple. This valuation assumed continued dramatic growth and a belief that a luggage maker could be positioned ultimately as a technology company.
But 2019, of course, was a different time.
When we look at comparable transactions, we see 2 notable (and somewhat) recent ones as detailed below:
These are big-dollar exits which could portend good things for Away.
The challenge, however, is that both Tumi and Rimowa had larger reported revenues than Away at the time of their 2016 exits.
- Tumi with $550M of revenue
- Rimowa with $500M of revenue
By contrast, Away had $150M of revenue in 2018 and it was reported that Away was going to hit $300M of revenue in 2021. The company’s top line was hit hard during the 2020 pandemic, with revenue dropping to a reported $135M. Its 2021 figure of $300M would have represented 100%+ growth year-over-year, which is certainly significant.
Given these valuations and revenue figures for comparable transactions, we see the following multiples:
- Tumi acquired for ~3.3x revenue
- Rimowa acquired for ~1.8x revenue
If we take Away’s 2018 valuation of $1.4B and apply the 2018 revenue ($150M) and the 2021 revenue ($300M), we see that the multiples range from 4.7x to 9.3x revenue — both dramatically higher than the referenced comp transactions.
If we assume that Away gets prior revenue multiples and the high end revenue estimate for 2021 ($300M), we land at valuations of:
- $540M valuation using Rimowa’s 1.8x multiple
- $990M valuation using Tumi’s 3.3x multiple
These represent valuations that are 29% to 61% lower than the prior round. Common shareholders likely see very little to nothing in a deal of this size.
A breakdown of Away’s valuations by round and investors can be seen here and in the table below.
