Rocket Internet to launch ten new companies this year

Just like it said last year, Rocket Internet SE today announced it will launch ten new companies this new financial year and will continue to invest in the existing ones, the firm announced this during the release of its 2014 consolidated results.

Rocket Internet has firms doing online lending, e-commerce, real estate and B2C markertplaces, online furniture stores among others. We haven’t established which verticals the firm plans to venture into yet.

Oliver Samwer, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Internet said, “It is our goal to launch again at least ten new companies in 2015 and continue to invest in our existing companies, our own proprietary technology, our geographic footprint, our infrastructure and processes, and our outstanding people around the globe.”

The firm went went public last year, says 2014 was marked by strong organic growth and a number of successful investments.

2004 saw foodpanda or hellofood process 8.7 million orders generating EUR 117 million of GMV in 2014. Organic order and GMV growth amounted to 430% and 386% respectively. foodpanda’s network of partners included 46 thousand restaurants as of December 2014. Net revenue grew by 839% to EUR 6.7 million.In terms of profitability, foodpanda generated a gross profit of EUR 6.5 million in 2014, representing a margin of 97%. The absolute adjusted EBITDA loss amounted to EUR 34 million.

More recently, foodpanda acquired Just Eat India, FoodbyPhone in Thailand, Koziness in Hong Kong, EatOye in Pakistan and the Foodrunner network with branches in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

At the end of April 2015, Goldman Sachs and existing shareholders invested EUR 79 million, providing foodpanda with a strong capital base.

Jumia also made significant progress transitioning to a marketplace. GMV totaled EUR 94 million, more than doubling relative to 2013 (+172%). The number of transactions totaled 1.2 million in 2014 (+159% relative to 2013). As of end of December 2014, the number of active customers (last 12 months) was 0.5 million. In total, 0.6 million customers had shopped on Jumia by that time.

In terms of profitability Jumia recorded a gross margin of 18% in 2014 (up 3 percentage points relative to 2013). The adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of GMV significantly improved over 2013 (-50%, up 37 percentage points relative to 2013).

Operating in 23 countries and addressing 822 million Africans, Africa Internet Group continued to show significant progress in 2014. The Group now employs around 2,700 people (excluding Jumia), operating in the most promising African countries. Rocket Internet says its companies in Africa secured market leadership in all key African countries, including Nigeria and South Africa.

Back home, Rocket Internet hired more than 60 IT engineers since the IPO and has announced the move to new headquarters at the beginning of 2016 dubbed “Rocket Tower” in Berlin’s city centre to offer office space of 22,000 square metres and host all Rocket Internet departments and its network companies.

On February 13^th 2015, Rocket Internet completed a cash capital increase, which generated gross proceeds amounting to EUR 588.5 million before deduction of commissions and expenses. This money will help the firm increase ownership in existing companies, build new companies, and create true global leaders.

“We are well on track and we are very satisfied with the performance of our companies, which has been in line with our expectations. We will continue to focus on significant market and growth opportunities as well as the simplification of our structure,” concluded Samwer.