Casper
One of the original direct-to-consumer mattress brands. Memory foam construction, bed-in-a-box delivery model. The "Casper" brand became shorthand for the entire DTC mattress category in the 2010s.
Status: Avoid
- Founded
- 2014
- HQ
- USA
- Manufacturing
- USA,Various
- Ownership type
- PE-owned
- Parent
- Durational Capital Management
- Acquired
- 2022
- Status since
- 2026-05-13
Ownership
Founded 2014 by Philip Krim, Neil Parikh, T. Luke Sherwin, Jeff Chapin, and Gabe Flateman. IPO'd on NYSE (CSPR) in February 2020 at $12 per share (below the $17-$19 expected range). Stock cratered below $2 within a year. Taken private by Durational Capital Management in late 2021 in a deal valued at approximately $286M. Synthetic memory foam construction, no natural materials in core product.
Why Avoid
Textbook example of the DTC consolidation arc: VC-funded growth → underperforming IPO → PE acquisition → margin extraction. Product is synthetic polyfoam. Brand identity has been preserved in marketing while ownership structure has churned through three different financial-engineering models.
Reversibility
What would change our verdict
Restructuring as an independent or employee-owned company is theoretically possible but unprecedented in the PE-owned DTC mattress segment.
Sister brands under Durational Capital Management
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