Skift Take
With Brad Handler out as chairman and his brother Brent Handler having given up the CEO role nearly a year ago, this deal represents a changing of the guard at Inspirato.
Inspirato brought in a new CEO and chairman, Payam Zamani, who arrived with a deal for $10 million in equity financing for the struggling luxury vacation club.
Inspirato also announced it’s laying off 15% of its workforce and terminating underperforming leases in moves geared to help shave $25 million annually.
Zamani, is founder and CEO of private equity firm One Planet Group, which obtains 2.9 million new shares of Inspirato Class A common stock and around the same number of warrants. The purchase price for each warrant and share is $3.43.
Zamani replaced Eric Grosse as CEO, who was in the post for around 11 months, and co-founder Brad Handler as chairman. In addition to Zamani, One Planet Group will name two additional members of the board, which is expected to remain a 7-director body.
“This transaction, not only strengthens Inspirato’s liquidity and improves the Company’s capital structure with a large, supportive shareholder, but it injects our boardroom with a fresh perspective,” Zamani said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the team, meeting our members and taking Inspirato to new heights in a more sustainable and profitable manner.”
Inspirato’s Third Recent Layoff Round
This was Inspirato’s third round of layoffs since early 2023. Layoffs in January 2023 affected roughly 100 employees, about 12% of its workforce. Another round in July 2023 impacted around 50 employees, or 6% of its workforce.
The announcement came as Inspirato is poised to report second-quarter earnings Tuesday.
Late last week, Inspirato announced that it won Nasdaq’s permission to keep trading on the exchange after a July 18 hearing on the company’s failure to meet market share listings requirements. Inspirato has until November 22 to cure the issue.
Of the $10 million in equity financing, $4.6 million was slated to close Tuesday, and a second tranche of $5.4 million is expected to close in September. After the second closing, One Planet Group has the option to invest an additional $2.5 million.
In the first quarter of 2024, Inpirato, which had already been focusing on cost savings, generated $2.2 million in net income on $80.2 million in revenue, which dropped 12.4% year over year.
