European Unicorns & more news from Point Nine
Point Nine Capital Newsletter, June 2014
Yo!
No sign of silly season this summer! Amazon is on Fire, Uber raised a whopping $1.2B round (or, you know, roughly one Waze) and unicorns were sighted across Europe(just 2 months after we caught another rare animal, a big bad wolf).
We’re not talking about these kind of unicorns (nor these ones), but billion dollar companies, which are generally called “unicorns” these days since Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures coined the term last year. Turns out, billion-dollar companies aren’t quite as rare as their one-horned namesake. GP Bullhound found that Europe has produced 30 companies valued at more than $1B in the last 14 years, and we are confident that there are plenty more in the making!
PORTFOLIO NEWS
- Talking about successful European companies, credit scoring company Kreditech just announced a $40M Series B, the biggest financing round for a FinTech company in Europe this year. Maybe not a unicorn just yet, but definitely a strong foal!
- After growing from 0 to 200 customers this year, Search-as-a-Service solution Algolia has just announced a $1.2M funding round led by Storm Ventures’ Jason Lemkin. If you want to see the magic in action, take a look at these demos or live integrations on Crunchbase, Product Hunt or GrowthHackers.
- According to GPB’s research, Rocket’s Zalando is the only horned horse coming out of Germany thus far. Well there are voices that say that our very own Westwing has what it takes to become ‘the next’ Zalando. Speaking of Westwing, if you haven’t read Stefan Smalla’s excellent manifesto about leadership yet, check it out. Now. It’s a must-read.
- The folks at Combat Gent have been busy in the shop again, releasing two new product lines. Firstly, a selvedge denim made from Japanese cotton and secondly, a line of chinos just in time for the sunny season. And the best part about it? They are going for only $70 and $40 respectively. There’s no more excuse to look shabby this summer!
- Remember the 80s, when younger versions of us ran around with walkmans listening to Michael Jackson and played the latest NES games? Typeform does! And rightfully, they wonder how we moved on to all-in-one devices, Lady Gaga (ok, not so sure about this one) and virtual reality, yet still use the same old forms that existed back then. Come on people, it’s time to ask awesomely!
(BTW: We don’t know about you, but we also like to #DrinkAwesomely) - Seeing companies grow up never gets old. Gengo, the crowd-sourced translation platform, has kicked off its Open Data initiative and the first numbers are impressive: Over 215,000,000 words have been translated by more than 10,000 translators in the last 6 years — that’s more than 1 word every second! Repeat after me: 1 — word — per — second. For six years straight.
- Ever wondered where your most supportive (or malicious) users are from? Then wonder no more, with Mention you can now break down your mentions by country! Did we mention that they are also hiring?
READING
- Forbes published a nice article titled “Zendesk’s first investor on how to spot a winner”. Check it out to read about Zendesk’s rise from three guys in a loft in Copenhagen to its debut on Wall Street (and reaching unicorn status).
- Besides some thoughts on the European unicorns, Pawel has outlined why he thinks there is an AdTech cluster emerging in Berlin. The post sparked an interesting debate on whether Hamburg or Berlin is AdTech capital of Germany. What do you think?
- Just in time for the World Cup, Christoph has examined what multi-touch attribution analysis has in common with scoring a goal in soccer. Curious? Find out more here or on the KISSmetrics blog, where the post was guest-published.
That’s it for now, you will hear from us again in July!
Best regards,
Your team at Point Nine Capital
PS: If reading up until here made you hungry, check out Cibando for some great Italian restaurants (Italian restaurants, Luis, not Italians!).
PPS: If you like our sense of humor (or know anyone who does) — we’re looking for an intern!
PPPS: If you enjoyed this post, sign up for our newsletter here.
