LONDON — Private equity investor Apax has given Matchesfashion a vote of confidence in the form of 60 million kilos in fresh funding.

The investment comes on the heels of an improved performance under the newest chief executive officer Nick Beighton, who joined the retailer last summer.

The 60 million kilos is comprised of 40 million kilos in fresh equity, and 20 million kilos in debt. It represents Apax’s largest commitment to Matchesfashion because it purchased the corporate in 2017 from founders Tom and Ruth Chapman, and other investors.

Beighton told WWD the 60 million pound injection was a show of “confidence in my executive team, strategy and potential.” He said the cash means “we’ll have the ability to raised utilize technology, product, logistics and culture to assist grow the highest line of the business in addition to our profitability.”

The CEO said that since joining Matchesfashion last 12 months, “I’ve been so impressed with the team and our trading performance has been very strong in recent months. Across the important thing trading period leading into the vacation season, order demand was up 15 percent year-on-year.”

Beighton added that the Middle East has emerged as a robust region and is Matchesfashion’s fastest-growing geography, with sales up 39 percent year-on-year. Growth within the U.S. and the U.K. was also ahead of the general group performance, he said.

“With this, we’re well-positioned as a business, having significantly reinforced our top team. We provide brands access to our exclusive audience and provides our customers an unrivaled luxury experience through our website and our physical retail locations, including our town house 5 Carlos Place” in London, he said.

In a November interview, Beighton told WWD that he was confident he could bring Matchesfashion “back to where it belongs” in the subsequent three years and argued the recovery was already well underway.

Within the fiscal quarter between August and October 2022, the corporate logged “healthy double-digit growth, which may be very pleasing given the macro headwinds,” Beighton said. “I’m delighted with that. But there’s an awful lot for us to do.”

He identified that the fastest-growing categories in the course of the quarter were women’s occasionalwear, in addition to men’s tailoring.

“We’re seeing strong growth within the U.K. and U.S., which is incredibly pleasing because they’re two key markets for us,” Beighton added.

As reported in September, he appointed Carl Tallents, the previous group head of luxury brands at Britain’s Frasers, the retailer’s chief industrial officer, replacing Elizabeth von der Goltz, who joined Farfetch as chief fashion and merchandising officer earlier this month.

Beighton joined Matches last summer and was the retailer’s fourth CEO in five years.

A tech and finance whiz, and the previous CEO of Asos, Beighton was expected to make sweeping changes at Matches, and to fuel top- and bottom-line growth in an ultra-competitive climate for luxury e-commerce.

As reported, within the fiscal 12 months ended Jan. 31, 2022, (before Beighton took over) Matchesfashion’s revenue was 386.6 million kilos, down 1.1 percent in comparison with the identical period a 12 months ago.

Losses before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization widened to 23.8 million kilos from 17.2 million kilos a 12 months ago. The whole loss for the financial 12 months 2021 was 38.6 million kilos.

Matchesfashion revealed that its business was negatively impacted by Brexit and lockdowns in the primary half of 2021, which led to a 9.4 percent dip in revenue within the period. Within the second half, revenue grew by 8.3 percent year-over-year.

The retailer said the bounceback within the second half was the results of “a return to a bigger, more focused fall buy that traded well with year-end sell-through up 2 percent to 83 points,” which also improved Matchesfashion’s margin within the period.