By Sierra Jackson

Law360 (November 12, 2020, 4:47 PM EST ) Online retailer Pharmapacks, guided by Cooley, said Thursday that it reached a valuation of $1.1 billion including debt after nabbing an investment from Latham & Watkins-led private equity firm Carlyle Group as the coronavirus has spurred a boom in e-commerce activity.

Pharmapacks LLC announced its unicorn status — an industry term for privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more — after Carlyle injected it with a $250 million Series B investment to fund the business' expansion plans.

"This is a milestone for our company," Pharmapacks CEO Andrew Vagenas told Law360 in an interview Thursday. "It's more about finding the right partner that we can scale and grow our vision with, so we're super happy about partnering with Carlyle with their expertise."

Launched in 2010, Pharmapacks has partnered with more than 100 major brands, whose products it lists and sells on its own website as well as on platforms including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target, Google and Facebook, according to its website. The New York-based business also says on its site that it delivered over 13.3 million shipments in 2019 from its 24-hour warehouses, which have a total of 500,000 square feet of space.

Vagenas also told Law360 that the enterprise intends to use the money to further develop its supply chain, invest in the technology that powers its platform, expand its partner base and enter new retail categories.

The company also reported new growth for 2019, with its sales reaching over $250 million for the year and with the opening of a 230,000-square-foot replenishment center in November, according to a press release. It also said it was on track in 2020 to increase its sales by roughly 60% year-over-year.

Yue Bonnet, a Carlyle principal focused on consumer, media and retail investments, said in the financing announcement that the firm was excited to support Pharmapacks' management in continuing the business' growth.

"We believe there are significant opportunities to support the company's value creation plans by helping to rapidly increase the number of consumer brand partners, building out the data and analytics platform and increasing capacity through additional warehouse expansion," Bonnet said in a statement.

The Carlyle investment follows a Series A funding round through which Pharmapacks scored $32.5 million from investors including CPG company RB, McKesson Ventures, Sealed Air and The Emerson Group, according to a June 2018 press release. Vagenas declined to disclose what the third-party retailer's valuation was after the previous financing.

Pharmapacks's valuation update follows after Tekion, a technology platform targeting automotive retail businesses, said in October that was valued at more than $1 billion after its latest funding round.

The online retail industry has continued to see deal activity throughout the coronavirus pandemic, most recently, with delivery service goPuff revealing earlier this month its plan to purchase wine and liquor retailer BevMo for $350 million. Last month, Shogun, a drag-and-drop web design platform for e-commerce enterprises, scored $35 million in a funding round amid a surge in use. And back in July, online retailer Thrasio, which claims it is the world's largest purchaser of Amazon's third-party sellers, said it rang up $260 million in financing.

Representatives for Carlyle Group were not immediately available to comment.

The Cooley LLP team is led by partners Sacha Ross and David Silverman and associate Ariel Rom.

The Latham & Watkins LLP team is led by corporate partners Paul Sheridan and Marc Granger, with associates Cierra Warren and Kelsey Schutte; and includes tax advice from partner David Raab and associate Shruti Hazra; and benefits and compensation advice from partner David Della Rocca and associate Nikhil Kumar.

--Editing by Emily Kokoll.

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