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Speedinvest announces EUR60m final close for specialist marketplaces and consumer fund

Speedinvest, a pan-European early-stage VC, today announces the final closing of its second specialist marketplaces and consumer fund at EUR60 million, above its original target of EUR50 million. More than a dozen notable marketplace founders and executives have joined the final close, including the founders of Ankorstore, Vinted, TradingView, Planetly, and more.  

Jörg Gerbig, COO of JustEatTakeAway & co-founder of Lieferando, also participated in the fund.Speedinvest’s Marketplaces and Consumer team has already made four investments since the fund’s first close, including freight and logistics B2B marketplace Yolda, which announced its USD1.9 million seed round in June. The team, led by General Partner Mathias Ockenfels, has expanded its investment focus to include Speedinvest’s consumer technology portfolio and aims to back B2B and B2C marketplaces, with a specific focus on companies with strong network effects.  

Since 2017, Speedinvest has raised over EUR100 million dedicated towards marketplaces and platforms across two generations of the fund, with more than EUR50 million raised from outside investors and Speedinvest’s flagship third fund contributing the other 50 per cent of the capital.The success of the fundraise comes off the back of outstanding performance for the Marketplaces and Consumer team’s portfolio of investments. In just three years since its launch, the Speedinvest x Fund 1 portfolio already includes one unicorn and six companies valued at over USD100 million in its portfolio, while its companies have raised an additional EUR500 million+ in follow-on funding from tier-one investors including the likes of Softbank, Northzone and Draper Esprit.   
 
Recent funding rounds of note include Europe’s number one independent ecommerce fulfillment platform Byrd’s EUR6 million Series B, digital coaching platform CoachHub’s EUR30 million Series B and TIER Mobility’s USD60 million in fleet financing led by Goldman Sachs. This portfolio success is underpinned by the sector-specific expertise of the Marketplaces & Consumer team, along with the operational support provided by Speedinvest’s dedicated Platform+ team.  
 
Mathias Ockenfels, General Partner leading the Marketplaces & Consumer team, says: “The success of the Fund 2 fundraising has led us to a favourable junction at an exciting time for the platform economy. Themes we are focusing on in this fund are plentiful, and include everything from B2B to B2C marketplaces as well as the sharing, subscription and circular economies. Network effects remains a core pillar of our thesis, but will be anchored by consumer topics as the lines between traditional commerce and platforms becomes more blurred. At the core of all our efforts is our ongoing mission to nurture Europe’s startup ecosystem with its founder-first ethos, and we aim to maximise this with our investments from this fund.” 

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