Fireside Chat: Zalando & HV Holtzbrinck Ventures

Fireside Chat with Robert Gentz, CEO of Zalando and Rainer Maerkle, General Partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures at the Axel Springer NOAH Conference 2017 in Berlin, Tempodrom 22-23 June 2017.

Zalando (https://corporate.zalando.com) is Europe’s leading online fashion platform for women, men and children. We offer our customers a one-stop, convenient shopping experience with an extensive selection of fashion articles including shoes, apparel and accessories, with free delivery and returns. Our assortment of over 1,500 international brands ranges from popular global brands, fast fashion and local brands, and is complemented by our private label products. Our localized offering addresses the distinct preferences of our customers in each of the 15 European markets we serve: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and the United Kingdom. Our logistics network with three centrally located fulfillment centers in Germany allows us to efficiently serve our customers throughout Europe. We believe that our integration of fashion, operations and online technology give us the capability to deliver a compelling value proposition to both our customers and fashion brand partners. Zalando’s shops attract over 135 million visits per month. In the fourth quarter of 2015, around 60 per cent of traffic came from mobile devices, resulting in close to 17.9 million active customers by the end of the quarter.

HV Holtzbrinck Ventures was founded in 2000, we are one of the leading independent European early stage funds. For over 16 years we have believed in the disruptive potential of the Internet and have been supporting founders in developing their Internet businesses. During this time, we as a team have invested in over 150 businesses, such as Zalando, Wooga, Lazada, Global Fashion Group, Groupon, Quandoo, Flixbus, HelloFresh, Westwing, Home24, Delivery Hero and many others.
We were one of the few venture capital firms in the past to ourselves found internationally successful companies such as Parship and Experteer. Our aim is to support the founders in developing their business as intensely as possible. This approach has made us one of the most successful European early stage investors.