Rocket Internet mulls ways to write new success stories

Will be transitioning itself more as a venture capital firm than just fund startups

Rocket internet SE CEO Oliver Samwer is under pressure to find start-ups that can make his shareholders money. And it’s not about to become any easier.

Samwer will assume the chief financial officer’s post from October in addition to his CEO job, when current CFO Peter Kimpel leaves for Barclays Plc., it was announced last week. Holding both executive posts at the German tech factory only complicates his task.

“Investors now want to see Samwer write new success stories by starting or backing more companies that can succeed on a larger scale,” said Alexander Rummler, an analyst at Oddo BHF. “Having to shoulder two jobs will only increase the pressure on him.”

Ever since some of Samwer’s best bets went public starting last year — food delivery company Delivery Hero SE, meal kit service HelloFresh SE, and furniture retailer Home24 SE — there’s been little news on other potential hits. Meanwhile, Rocket’s cash pile of about €2.3 billion (Dh9.77 billion; $2.66 billion) sits mostly idle in the bank.

Samwer has a new strategy though: shifting Rocket to behave more like a venture capital firm, and relying less on its earlier model of cloning successful US internet companies.

Rocket says Kimpel, who helped engineer the company’s 2014 IPO, has formed an experienced finance and accounting team that will take much work off Sawmer’s shoulders. It would leave billionaire Samwer, who was one of the first backers of Zalando SE and helped it grow into Europe’s largest online fashion retailer, to focus his attention on repeating that success with some of the lesser-known startups his company is backing. Rocket owns 60 per cent in Berlin-based InstaFreight — a platform that matches, via an app, truck drivers with excess capacity in their vehicles, and businesses which need to ship cargo. InstaFreight says it can save firms time and money by calculating a fixed price instantly, based on loading and unloading points as well as the type of cargo.

Early-stage venture

InstaFreight, founded in 2016 and now shipping across the EU, is an early-stage venture, having raised €8 million in a Series A round in November. But it operates in a global logistics market that will be worth $15.5 trillion by 2023, according to data compiled by Transparency Market Research.

Rocket knows food, having digitised deliveries and introducing meal kit services in many European markets and the US. While those models have focused on private consumers, Samwer is now looking at the B2C food sector.

Berlin-based Caterwings, 48 per cent owned by Rocket, is a marketplace that links caterers with corporate customers to provide services such as weekly lunches, and supply company parties with food trucks. The sector is tough: Caterwings has lost at least three executives over the past two years and is facing renewed competition from US rival EzCater, which last month bought Paris-based GoCater as it seeks to expand in Europe.

Spotcap provides short-term loans to small and mediumsized businesses in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, promising companies faster access to money. It’s raised about €100 million from Rocket (which owns 40 per cent of the business) as well as others.

But there’s strong competition from traditional banks and well-capitalised start-ups