Rocket Internet, the German-based e-commerce startup incubator from the Samwer brothers, is today announcing another round of funding for its strategy to build out its footprint into emerging markets. Today it’s the turn of Middle-East-based fashion commerce site Namshi, which is getting $13 million from Summit Partners. This is the second time Summit, a Rocket regular, has invested in Namshi… → Read More
The race for leadership in easy e-commerce in Europe is on. Stripe, the U.S. startup that has developed a simple payments API for developers to use in apps and on the web, is preparing to make its first steps into European waters with a beta launch. And the news comes as Rocket Internet-backed rival/clone Paymill, which also offers developers an API for simple payments (at comparable… → Read More
Payleven, the mobile payment company from the Samwer bothers’ Rocket Internet incubator, is now taking orders for its chip-and-PIN readers, which it says makes it one of the first of the Square-style competitors in Europe to offer quick way to comply with Visa’s card payment requirements in the region. The readers were first announced in October 2012; today Payleven starts to take orders — at a… → Read More
FoodPanda, a Rocket Internet-backed online platform for aggregating and delivering food from take-out restaurants, is today announcing that it has expanded to 12 more emerging markets, taking the total number of countries that it covers to 23. The company is also in the process of raising money to help fuel the growth, essential to compete against the likes of GrubHub in the U.S., or Just-Eat or … → Read More
Paymill, the Rocket-Internet incubated online payments company that works like developer-friendly Stripe by offering users an API to quickly integrate card transactions, is today announcing that it has picked up €10 million ($13.2 million) in funding. Rocket regular Holtzbrinck Ventures participated, along with new investor Sunstone Capital, a backer of companies like Prezi and Trunk. Rocket… → Read More
Amazon’s global march has yet to take it into emerging markets like Vietnam and Malaysia, so the Samwer brothers have smelled an opportunity to build out their own version in the absence of Amazon itself. Lazada, an Asia-focused “online shopping mall” that has come out of the bothers’ German incubator Rocket Internet, is today announcing an investment of $40 million to build out its business. → Read More
Less than a month after reportedly sinking $40-80 million into Lamoda, Rocket Internet’s “Russian Zappos”, JP Morgan is investing once again in the Samwer brothers and their vision for a global e-commerce operation: the latest is Zalora, Rocket Internet’s fashion site based in Singapore and operating across seven countries in South East Asia. The investment comes just eight months after the site… → Read More
Less than a month after JP Morgan put investments into two Rocket Internet-baked fashion sites modelled on Zappos — an undisclosed investment into Zalando and $45 million in Brazil’s Dafiti, the bank is taking an equity stake in a third Rocket Internet fashion business. Lamoda.ru in Russia, a site with 5 million unique users and 500,000 “loyal customers,” is apparently raising between $40… → Read More
Zalando, the shoe and fashion e-commerce site originally started as a clone of Zappos by the Samwer brothers, is gearing up for another phase of growth. The company today announced that it has closed another round of funding, adding J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Quadrant Capital Advisors as its newest backers.
As with past rounds of financing — and as with many other Samwer investments … → Read More
Fashion For Home, the online designer furniture store, has scored a new funding round led by the Munich-based VC Acton Capital Partners, while Holtzbrinck Ventures has also participated. And with it we have an exit of sorts.
That’s because, as part of the round, the Samwer brothers’ incubator, Rocket Internet, has sold its shares, although terms of the transaction aren’t being disclosed … → Read More
This is a part II in a series of guest posts by Erik Bovee, a founder and partner in SpeedInvest, an early stage venture fund focusing on Central Europe. He’s previously written about why “Things happen fast“.
My fiancee, who is a violinist, and takes no interest in my work with startups, except to express the opinion that people who work in business (and particularly finance and hi-tech) are… → Read More
This is a part II in a series of guest posts by Erik Bovee, a founder and partner in SpeedInvest, an early stage venture fund focusing on Central Europe. He’s previously written about why “Things happen fast“.
My fiancee, who is a violinist, and takes no interest in my work with startups, except to express the opinion that people who work in business (and particularly finance and hi-tech) are… → Read More
The three Samwer brothers (Oliver, Marc and Alexander) founders of the Rocket Internet incubator in Berlin, are the most successful Internet entrepreneurs in Germany and possibly Europe. After launching and exiting multiple businesses, many of them clones/copycats of US startups, they are multi-millionaires. Indeed, their Groupon clone CityDeal sold to to Groupon for an estimated €750m in cash… → Read More
You know what they say about imitation being the most sincere form of flattery? Well sometimes, like in the case of Groupon and its many imitators competitors, this type of flattery is also a huge business risk. The latest victim to get bombarded by an “attack of the clones”? Billion dollar darling Airbnb.
Obviously feeling threatened by its recent crop of competitors, the company sent out an… → Read More
The rumors are true. The Samwer brothers, who are famous for executing the perfect copycat startup, have now jumped onto the BirchBox train, creating GlossyBox, their own European clone of the beauty product subscription service. The news was first reported by the German site Gruenderszene.
Over the last few months there have been several investors, incubators and entrepreneurs thinking about… → Read More
The Samwer brothers are at it again. Shortly after cashing in on Citydeal, Germany’s most prolific startup investors have put millions into Panfu. Their incubator Rocket Internet joined by Holtzbrinck Ventures has invested a seven digit Euro sum in the multi-language online gaming world for kids.
It’s their third joint investment in Panfu, former rounds were done together alongside other… → Read More
The Groupon acquisition of CityDeal is being hailed by many across Europe as a good exit for the German-based clone (yes, there is no point in saying it is anything else but a Groupon clone). But luckily there are more than just clones in Germany. The burgeoning cluster in Mitte, central Berlin, is producing startups such as Soundcloud, hiogi, Babbel, Twinity, SongBeat and aka-aki. Nokia bought… → Read More
[Germany] While others hunted for presents, Germany’s most prolific startup founders used the holiday season to collect even more investor money and to start another company. Shortly after Christmas eve, the Samwer brothers switched on MyCityDeal. The Groupon clone will offer daily deals with up to 50 per cent discounts on stuff to do, see, eat and buy in cities across Germany. But until now the… → Read More
[Germany] It must be great to be in the social games business. Apparently anyone can jump on the bandwagon, even latecomers and copycats. Following Electronic Arts’ $300 million acquisition of Playfish, a $43 million investment at Playdom and €5 million ($7.5m) additional funding for Wooga, comes the fourth investment in the last week: The Samwer brothers’ copy of social games giant Zynga… → Read More
[Germany] The Samwer brothers, Germany’s most prolific startup investors, are on an e-commerce investment spree. While TechCrunch mourns the end of the funding party and 340,000 layoffs in Silicon Valley alone since August 2008, the three brothers with the Midas touch have used the same time to invest in at least 10 new online shops via their vehicle, European Founders Fund: 7trends… → Read More
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