Societas Europaea | |
Traded as | : RKET |
Industry | Online retailing, Venture capital |
Founded | 2007 |
Founder | Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer |
Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
Area served
|
World |
Key people
|
Oliver Samwer (CEO), Peter Kimpel (CFO), Alexander Kudlich (Group Managing Director) |
Revenue | €81.309 million (2015) |
Number of employees
|
300 (2015), incl. ventures 30,000 |
Website | www.rocket-internet.com |
Rocket Internet SE is a German Internet company headquartered in Berlin. The company builds online startups and owns shareholdings in various models of internet retail businesses. The company model is known as a startup studio or a venture builder.
It provides office space to new companies at its headquarters in Berlin, with IT support, marketing services and access to investors. As of 2016, Rocket Internet has more than 28,000 employees across its worldwide network of companies, which consists of over 100 entities active in 110 countries. The company's market capitalization was 3.151 billion euros in October 10, 2016.
The company was founded in Berlin in 2007 by three brothers: Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer and was once also connected to the European Founders Fund, an associated company.
In 2008 Rocket Internet founded Zalando, inspired by US online retailer Zappos.com.
On July 1, 2014, Rocket Internet changed its legal form from a GmbH (private limited company) to an AG (public limited company). The initial public offering took place on October 2, 2014 at the . The company was listed in the Entry Standard and got uplisted in Prime Standard on September 26, 2016. In October 2016 it was announced that Rocket Internet replaces Chorus Clean Energy AG in SDAX. On March 18, 2015 the company changed its legal form into an SE (Societas Europaea). In mid-December 2016, Global Founders held 37.1% in Rocket Internet, Kinnevik 13.2%, United Internet 8.3%, Baillie Gifford 6.5%, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company 6.1% and Access Industries 6.0%. Holtzbrinck Ventures held a 1.8% share, with main investors holding shares of 3.4%; 16.3% was held in free float. In January 2017, Rocket Internet Capital Partners announced its final closing of $1 billion dedicated to early stage and growth equity investments. It is the biggest tech fund of any VC firm to date in Europe.