The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · May 2015

softgarden is a Berlin-based cloud provider of e-recruiting solutions. Led by founder and CEO Dominik Faber, the company offers an e-recruiting platform that allows HR managers at both large and small employers to handle vacancies and applications. The company completed a €3M financing round in May 2015. Backers in the round included Cipio Partners and Neuhaus Partners. softgarden intends to use the capital to accelerate the expansion of its internal sales team and to grow through partnerships.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2015

Smava operates an online credit comparison platform that aggregates about 70 loan products ranging from €1,000 to €120,000 from over 20 banks and lending partners. Consumers select a loan on the platform and take it out directly; on average Smava borrowers pay roughly 35% less interest than the German national average. The company reported strong brokered loan volume growth, increasing about 35% from ~€2.0B in 2018 to ~€2.7B in 2019, with growth accelerating in Q1 2020. Founded in 2007 and based in Berlin, Smava has raised multiple funding rounds, most recently a €65M Series D over two years ago. Management says the new financing will be used to continue investments in digitalization and product innovations and to maintain growth through the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. CEO and co-founder Alexander Artopé emphasized the package’s role in sustaining the company’s growth course despite the crisis. Smava operates an online marketplace/portal that matches consumers to loan offers using big-data credit analytics and algorithms, typically presenting about 70 offers drawn from roughly 25 banks and private lenders. The company began in 2007 as a peer-to-peer lending platform but shifted to include banks as the primary funding source; P2P now represents less than five percent of loans. Smava says its matching and automation cut average wait times from 10 days to 10 minutes and deliver average savings of about €2,000 for borrowers, while approval rates on the platform rise to roughly 80–85 percent versus about 50 percent through banks directly. Operational scale cited in the article includes about 300,000 customers, €1.2 billion in loans transacted this year and about €3 billion over the company’s lifetime. Smava has been profitable for the last year and takes around four percent from its loans, which the article estimates would imply roughly €48 million in revenues from those products. The company plans to expand beyond Germany across Europe and pursue partnerships with e-commerce platforms (for example, powering financing for eBay’s car portal in Germany). smava operates an online lending marketplace that offers bank-branded and funded third-party loans as well as peer-to-peer loans ranging from €1,000 to €120,000. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Alexander Artopé and is based in Berlin, Germany. smava has originated more than $1.75 billion in loans through its platform and employs over 180 people. The firm plans to use the new capital to expand its customer base, hire additional talent and continue enhancing its scoring technology. The product mix includes both bank-funded products and loans funded by private individuals, positioning smava across multiple lending channels. The company emphasizes technology-driven credit scoring as a core part of its offering. Smava is a German peer-to-peer lending platform that matches investors with borrowers for online loans. The company uses automated algorithms and scoring technology to vet and approve loan candidates, enabling lower interest rates for users. Smava reports it has loaned out $600 million through its platform and that loan originations grew by 100% in the last year. The fresh capital is intended to accelerate business growth, advance its scoring technology, hire talent, and further fuel expansion. Management says the aim is to offer fully automated loans to borrowers at the best rates in the near future. Smava competes with other online lenders such as Auxmoney, Zopa and Lending Club. Smava is a Berlin-based social lending marketplace operating a Zopa-style peer lending platform. It generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% fee on funded loans from borrowers; lenders use the service cost-free. The company has originated roughly €4 million in loans to date. Smava closed a second financing round of €4 million with venture capital firms Earlybird and Hamburg-based Neuhaus Partners. Earlybird was an investor in the first round and Neuhaus Partners joined in this second round. The article notes that social lending marketplaces have proven viable outside the UK and US and suggests significant potential for the model in Germany, where traditional credit is less prevalent and social support is culturally ingrained.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2011

Content Fleet builds tailored content and portal solutions for publishers and other content distributors, using data-driven analysis to identify themes and product trends across social media, publishers, retailers and keyword sources. The company assesses collected data for reach and monetization potential, which informs content production and portal management, and uses a network of authors to deliver SEO-optimized content to consumers. Founded in July 2010 and based in Hamburg, Content Fleet plans to launch a SaaS product by the end of 2011 that will give clients access to its backend technologies. The company counts digital media groups such as Deutsche Telekom, Bertelsmann and Axel Springer among its clients. It intends to use recent funding to further develop trend-detection capabilities and to expand its team in key areas and internationally. Content Fleet operates an online publishing service that supplies clients with written content and SEO services through a network of writers and a self-developed CMS that generates SEO-optimized portals. The company serves notable clients including Deutsche Telekom AG and Axel Springer AG. Founded in 2010 by Mattias Protzmann and Tim Fabian Besser, Content Fleet was spun out from IT service provider Getanet and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The business model centers on producing scalable, SEO-focused content for corporate customers. The recent financing will be used to support the company’s future growth plans. No operating metrics or revenues were disclosed in the article.

Led · Series C · Jan 2011

Searchmetrics is a search optimization and content performance software company founded in late 2007 and led by CEO Volker Smid. The company offers a sixth-generation software suite with a large global and historical database spanning search, content, PPC, social and mobile. Its dataset includes rankings of more than 120 million domains, one billion URLs, and monitoring of over 600 million keywords. In March the company introduced Mobile App Rankings to help businesses track an application's performance against competitors. Headquartered in Berlin with offices in London, New York and San Mateo, Searchmetrics plans to invest in new data-driven product features and services. It has previously raised more than $31 million in equity across five rounds, with major investors including Holtzbrinck Digital and Iris Capital. Searchmetrics is a Berlin-based global enterprise platform for search experience optimization that combines SEO, content, social media, PR and analysis. Led by CEO Tom Schuster, the platform is positioned to form the foundation for developing and executing an organic search strategy. Recent product advancements include Site Structure Optimization, Content Optimization and Social Engagement features. The company cites recent client engagements with homesearch.com, Amain.com and Sephora. Searchmetrics received an undisclosed funding round from existing investors Neuhaus Partners, Iris Capital and Holtzbrinck Digital. It intends to use the funds for product development and support. Searchmetrics provides SEO and analytics software that identifies where customers should spend budget to improve search performance. The company is based in Berlin and was founded in late 2007. Searchmetrics was previously financed by Holtzbrinck Digital (seed) and saw Neuhaus Partners join in a January 2010 B round. It has raised approximately $11 million to date. The company secured a $6.75 million growth / C-stage funding round led by Iris Capital with participation from Holtzbrinck Digital and Neuhaus Partners. Proceeds from the latest round will be used to support continued international expansion.

Led · Series A · Jan 2010

Tolingo operates an online translation platform offering access to over 2,500 certified translators online at any one time across 26 specialized translation categories. Customers can select preselections such as medicine, marketing, law, finance or business and are allocated a specialist translator; translations are proof-read twice. The company emphasizes speed — its platform “significantly increases translation speed” — and a price point about 40% cheaper than small translation agencies, according to the CEO. Tolingo was founded in 2008 and is led by 24‑year‑old founder and CEO Hanno von der Decken. The company competes with services such as Livetranslation.com and mygengo. Management intends to use new funding to expand further in Europe and internationally.