Tengelmann Ventures invests millions into grocery startups ShopWings and Bonativo
20 FEBRUARY 2015
SUMMARY Tengelmann Ventures has become the first external investor in grocery startups ShopWings and Bonativo. Only a few months after launching in Munich and Berlin, ShopWings, the online supermarket for groceries, received a Series A funding of 12 million euros from Tengelmann Ventures, Rocket Internet and other investors. Bonativo, the online farmers’ market, also received a Series A funding of 3.2 million euros from Tengelmann Ventures and Rocket Internet.
“With Tengelmann Ventures we have found an investor who not only understands our sector but also has recognised the potential for online grocery shopping. Our aim now is to continue growing and to tap into new markets in other cities and countries,” explains Andreas Veller, co-founder of ShopWings.
Christian Eggert, co-founder of Bonativo, was also enthusiastic about the first round of funding. “We are very happy about the trust investors have in us at such an early phase of our business. This investment validates our aim to make locally produced food available to as many people as possible via the Internet. With this investment we will continue to grow our existing markets in Berlin and London, as well as expanding into new cities and countries.”
The majority of supermarket chains are still focussing on stationary business. “We are at the fore of a strong and promising trend which we have observed for a few years now. Groceries will increasingly dominate online retail. There is a lot of scope for growth. With ShopWings and Bonativo we are investing in two new business models which have high potential to benefit their customers,” stated Christian Winter, CEO of Tengelmann Ventures, in explaining the company’s decision to invest.
According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the percentage of online sales for groceries is currently only in the low single digits - with 5% as the highest market share internationally. At the moment most food merchants are concentrating predominantly on offline trade as they lack knowledge of the online market. Despite the low market shares, BCG forecasts the global online grocery market to increase from USD 36 billion (2013) to USD 100 billion by 2018. About ShopWings
Conrad Bloser, Christoph Harsch, Florian Jaeger, Dominik Unützer and Andreas Veller are the five founders behind ShopWings. The company currently operates in Berlin, Munich and Sydney and it is supported by Rocket Internet. The Berlin-based startup accelerator launches proven business models in new markets that show high potential.
About Bonativo
Bonativo brings the farmers’ market online and delivers regional produce to the customer’s front door. The Berlin startup currently operates in Berlin and London and has a staff of 15 people, including its founder, Christian Eggert.
About The Tengelmann Group
The Tengelmann Group is an international multi-sector trading company whose brands include OBI, KiK, Kaiser’s Tengelmann, baby-markt.de and Plus.de. It also owns the real estate company TREI Real Estate as well as the investment companies Emil Capital Partners in the United States and Tengelmann Ventures in Germany, which have invested in online start-ups for several years now. The family-run company, whose current managing director is the fifth generation to take the helm, was founded in 1867 in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Operating in 18 countries, the Tengelmann Group has over 4,100 branches and a staff of approximately 72,000. Its annual net sales is in excess of EUR 7.82 billion.
RELEVANT LINKS
Bonativo http://www.bonativo.de
ShopWings http://www.shopwings.de
Tengelmann Ventures http://www.tev.de/en/
IMAGES SPOKESPERSON
Simon Ueberheide Communications Manager [email protected]
simon.ueberheide.rocket SimonUee ABOUT ROCKET INTERNET
Our Mission
Rocket's mission is to become the world’s largest Internet platform outside of the United States and China. Rocket identifies and builds proven Internet business models and transfers them to new, underserved or untapped markets where it seeks to scale them into market leading online companies. Rocket is focused on proven online business models that satisfy basic consumer needs across three sectors: eCommerce, marketplaces and financial technology. Rocket was founded in 2007 and now has more than 25,000 employees across its network of companies, which operate in more than 100 countries on five continents.
Our Focus
Our e-commerce companies include retail companies in the areas of fashion, general merchandise, home and living, office supplies and food and groceries. Our marketplace companies seek to displace traditional supply chains by creating venues where buyers and sellers can transact directly, and include real estate and car online classifieds, travel and transport, and food delivery companies. Our third sector, financial technology, includes companies that focus on bringing together borrowers and lenders in regions and segments that are underserved by traditional banks, particularly in the consumer and small and medium-sized enterprise segments, and on facilitating payments.
Our Strategy
As part of our global strategy, we have created regional Internet groups in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East in order to bundle local market and business model insights, facilitate regional commercial, strategic and investment partnerships, in particular with mobile telecommunication providers, enable local recruiting and sourcing and accelerate the regional rollout of our companies. We have developed proprietary technology where we believe it provides our companies with a competitive advantage. Our proprietary technology is highly flexible and scalable and provides our companies with significant cost and speed advantages, particularly during their initial rapid launch and rollout processes.
Our Platform
Our platform has enabled us to build a large, global network of companies and has historically put us in a position to launch more than 10 new companies every year through application of a standardized business model identification and development process. Every new company that we start accelerates the virtuous circle of synergy creation among our companies. The larger the size of our network of companies, the more significant our opportunity is to benefit from synergies and network effects with respect to our suppliers, solution providers, customers and employees. Rocket Internetpressroom
ℹ Contact information
Rocket Internet Rocket Internet AG
Johannisstraße 20 10117 Berlin Deutschland
T. +49 30 300 13 18-00 F. +49 30 300 13 18-99 E. [email protected] USt-IdNr.: DE256469659
Management Board: Oliver Samwer (CEO), Peter Kimpel, Alexander Kudlich Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Lorenzo Grabau Registration Court: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, Registration No.: HRB 159634
Main website
Spokesperson
Andreas Winiarski Senior Vice President Global Communications, Corporate Spokesman [email protected]
andreas.winiarski winiarski
Nils Seger Head of Communications Africa Internet Group [email protected]
n.seger nilsseger
Lisa Teicher Head of Branding [email protected]
lisa.teicher-rocket lisa_teicher
David Zahn Senior Communications Manager [email protected]
davidzahn-rocket da_zahn
Karolin Hewelt Senior Communications Manager [email protected]
karolin_hewelt K_Welten
Simon Ueberheide Communications Manager [email protected]
simon.ueberheide.rocket SimonUee
David Baumgarten Communications Manager [email protected]
david.p.baumgarten
Markus Oettig Communications Manager [email protected]
markus_oettig MOettig
Alexander Klepel Senior Communications Manager [email protected]
alex.klepel Latest Tweets
RECEIVE UPDATES
FOLLOW PRESSROOM