Care.com Acquires Subscription Kids’ Goods Startup Citrus Lane In Up To $48.6M Deal

Care.com, the listed Massachusetts-based company that runs an online marketplace for finding and managing family care resources such as babysitters and elder caregivers, announced today that it has acquired Citrus Lane, the e-commerce startup that sells monthly subscription boxes of products aimed at babies and kids.

The total deal value is up to $48.6 million total, Care.com said in a press release published this afternoon. Of that, $22.9 million is in cash, $8.1 million is in equity, and $17.6 million is available in earn out payments of cash and equity over the next two years, pursuant to the achievement of certain business milestones.

The deal is a nice multiple on Citrus Lane‘s annual revenue, which was $6 million in 2013, and is expected to double to $12 million this year. The three-year-old Citrus Lane, which has more than 400,000 members and 45,000 paying subscribers, has raised $6.6 million in venture capital from investors including Greylock and GGV Capital.

It’s a smart target for Care.com, as Citrus Lane is a strong company with a stellar team. As I wrote two years ago after interviewing Citrus Lane founder and CEO Mauria Finley for a TechCrunch article,

“Talking to Finley, what was especially compelling to me (and something that I imagine attracted investors as well) is that Citrus Lane’s founders seem to be the full package: They have real technical and business chops, but are also women themselves who understand the needs of their customer base.

‘We have a really great technology and quant marketing teams, and we are building all sorts of algorithmic understanding that we’re confident will run circles around other companies in the space,’ Finley said. ‘But the secret and the heart of this is that we really believe in the customer, and we believe in the mission of helping moms find the right products for their kids.'”

Citrus Lane will be run as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Care.com going forward, led by Finley, who will serve as an SVP of the company. Care.com, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has a market cap of $320 million.