Wonderbly

Graphite funds led the £46 million buy-out of Wonderbly in July 2021. The company was founded on the success of the ‘Lost My Name’ children’s picture book, which sold four million copies worldwide and is the best-selling premium personalised children’s book in the world. Wonderbly sells its books direct-to-consumer in over 140 countries, with international sales accounting for approximately 75% of its revenues.

Wonderbly developed proprietary software which allowed it to render personalised images and fulfil orders from customers across the world against short delivery times. This was facilitated by a worldwide network of on-demand printers, creating a scalable global model with high margins and no inventory. The company broadened its offer beyond children’s titles with the launch of personalised books targeting adult gifting occasions. In line with this objective, Wonderbly acquired two publishers of personalised books for adults, ‘The Book of Everyone’ in 2022 and ‘Historic Newspapers’ in 2023.

Following Graphite’s investment, Wonderbly invested heavily in data science, marketing personalisation and pricing optimisation, enabling it to scale while also reducing customer acquisition costs. Graphite launched a series of projects in 2023 and 2024 aimed at improving data availability and analysis, reducing spend on paid search and growing high-margin repeat revenues. This included investing in an improved customer segmentation model, hiring specialists to improve channel attribution, personalising marketing and the website experience for existing customers, using consultants to strengthen pricing architecture, and creating the new role of Head of Data and Insight.