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Billionaire Rocket Internet founder Oliver Samwer at a conference in 2013. Photo credit: Wikipedia.
German startup leviathan Rocket Internet announced today that it’s secured investor commitments of US$1 billion for its “Rocket Internet Capital Partners Fund.” The fund will be global in its outlook – targeting internet companies at all stages of their lifecycles.
Rocket Internet itself has pledged US$140 million to the pool.
A short press statement from the company didn’t identify the limited partners by name, simply saying that they’re a “diverse group of global investors, including financial institutions, pension funds, asset managers, foundations, and high net-worth individuals.”
It added that the fund will invest in startups focused on marketplaces, ecommerce, fintech, software, and travel.
It seems like the cash is in addition to the US$420 million investors pledged to Rocket last year. There’s no word from the Berlin-headquartered startup builder on how much of that capital has already been deployed or whether the fund has been augmented to hold a billion dollars in cash from today onwards.
Last year, at least, the investment ethos of the fund was to co-invest alongside Rocket, pledging to put in US$4 for every US$1 that the Samwers signed off on.
Rocket Internet, which went public in 2014, has seen the value of its shares slide considerably from their start of US$39.35. Yesterday the stock closed at US$20.50 – meaning they’ve lost almost half their market value.
It also had a mixed 2016, losing nearly US$700 million throughout the year but managing to score a meaty exit with the sale of Lazada to Alibaba.
“RICP having reached the hard cap of US$1 billion shows the strong interest of leading investors, who share the enthusiasm for the attractive investment opportunity RICP presents,” said Oliver Samwer, Rocket Internet’s CEO.
We’ve reached out to Rocket Internet for further details and will update the article when we hear back.
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