- GeneralIPO
- May 27, 2021
- 5 minutes read
Markets: Investor Thomas Tull Makes Bank From Figs IPO
Earlier this month, Figs, a medical apparel startup, filed for an IPO. It just completed its debut on the public markets…
Earlier this month, Figs, a medical apparel startup, filed for an IPO. It just completed its debut on the public markets and now trades on the New York Stock Exchange, with a valuation of $4.6bn.
- Figs’ IPO represents a very successful one for an eight-year-old direct-to-consumer startup. It built a major name for itself as a maker of fancy and fashionable medical apparel, though it’s drawn some controversy for that.
- Before Figs’ IPO, it was a privately-held startup backed by investors including Thomas Tull, a billionaire media mogul who made his fortune founding Legendary Entertainment. Legendary is a movie financier and producer with many popular titles including the Godzilla series.
- After selling Legendary for $3.5bn in 2016, Tull parlayed his fortune into major investments in startups, and Figs was one of his investments. He bought a majority stake in Figs with a $65mn investment in 2017. The stake was bought via his firm Tulco Holdings.
- With a majority stake, Tull was the biggest Figs shareholder (58%) heading into the IPO, and that stake got him a very large profit. He even sold 21.7 million shares for pre-tax proceeds of $480mn in its IPO.
- Right now, Tull via his holding company Tulco has a Figs stake worth well over $1bn even after cashing out $480mn. It represents a very big return for a $65mn investment in 2017. As it’s been proven time and time again, much money begets even much more money.
- Thomas Tull’s other investments alongside Figs include insurance broker Acrisure and on-demand healthcare startup Heal. For now, Figs appears to be his most profitable with a solid exit.
- Apart from Figs, other big winners from the company’s IPO include female co-founders Trina Spear and Heather Hasson, each with stakes in the ballpark of $400mn. As Co-CEOs, they’re one of the few female CEOs of an American public company.
- Figs is a very profitable company, with $50mn of net income on $263mn revenue in 2020. It’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the “FIGS” ticker symbol.
Photo credit: Fortune Conferences, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
