Roman_Kirsch

Roman Kirsch

Roman Kirsch

German serial entrepreneur and investor

Roman Kirsch is a German serial entrepreneur and investor in the tech- and consumer-internet-space.[1][2][3]

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

Early life and education

Kirsch holds a business degree from the German business school WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.[4] He also has a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics in Finance, Accounting and Management.[5] He also spent time at the University of Southern California[5] as well as the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

Career

At the age of 13, Roman set up a business of importing watches from China.[6] Later in 2003, at the age of 15, Kirsch founded his first company (a souvenir shop in Hamburg).[7]

In 2011, Kirsch founded Casacanda; a furniture company that was later acquired by Fab.com in February 2012, making it one of the fastest company exits in tech history for one of the youngest founders.[5][7][8] He spent a year as the CEO of Fab Europe until end of 2012 where he oversee the company reaching the unicorn status at a USD 1 billion valuation.[5][9] Fab.com Berlin as the direct legal successor of Casacanda completed its insolvency procedure in January 2023.[10]

In 2012 Kirsch started investing and building multiple companies. In 2012 Roman was a founding investor of Amorelie, which became the female-focused lingerie company in Europe. In 2015 media company Pro7Sat1 acquired Amorelie, which is now valued at €100 million.[11]

In 2013 Kirsch, alongside Matthias Wilrich and Robin Müller, founded the Berlin e-commerce startup Lesara with Kirsch as the CEO of the company.[7][12][13][14] The company was awarded as fastest-growing tech company in Europe in 2016 by “The Next Web” and as the fastest growing tech company in Germany in 2017 by Deloitte.[15][16]

Through his Rapid Pioneers Group Kirsch has co-founded and invested into several consumer technology and brands with a focus on Europe.[17]

In 2015 Kirsch became the first investor and advisor in the Instagram-DTC-pioneer Fitvia.[18] In June 2019 stock-listed Dermapharm announced the acquisition of 70% of the shares in Fitvia.[19] Other consumer brands he has been a founding investor in are K-Beauty brand Yepoda, natural cosmetics brand Happyglam and couponing platform Lumaly.[20]

The total portfolio of the Rapid Pioneers Group consists of over 25 companies, including green climate tech unicorn Enpal GmbH,[21][22] Carprice, SevenSenders, Bending Spoons, Hive logistics, everdrop and Wild Cosmetics.[23][24] In 2022 Kirsch was awarded as one of the best 50 seed investors in Europe by Business Insider.[25]

In 2018, the company Lesara struggled with follow-on financing and had to declare bankruptcy, selling a part of the insolvency mass to Ladenzeile, a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE.[26][27]

In April 2021, Kirsch has raised $345m in an IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange for the investment vehicle Tio Tech. Kirsch serves as CEO of Tio Tech.[28] In April 2023, Tio Tech announced its shutdown after failing to complete a transaction within an agreed two year deadline.[29]

Awards and recognition

  • In January 2016, Forbes Magazine US listed Kirsch in its 30 under 30 Europe list for retail and e-commerce[30]
  • In 2017, the business magazine Capital listed Kirsch in its 40 under 40 list for young elites[31]
  • He is also a "Global Shaper” of the World Economic Forum Davos and a member of YPO[32]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Li, Charmaine (16 May 2014). "Meet Roman Kirsch, the 25-year-old founder who sold his startup to Fab". Tech.eu. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. [2]
    Heuberger, Sarah (23 July 2020). "Das sind die bisher unbekannten Investments von Roman Kirsch". Business Insider (in German). Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  3. [3]
    Bracht, Anke. "Roman Kirsch: Disruption in the cosmetics industry". The Weberbank magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  4. [4]
    "WHU Alumni among Forbes "30 under 30"". WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. 2016-02-25. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  5. [5]
    "Roman Kirsch". TheEuropean (in German). 2 May 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  6. [6]
    Anna, Isaac (2017-01-03). "Lesara's Roman Kirsch on how to build a fashion empire". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  7. [7]
    "Fab Buys Casacanda For $11 million To Fight The Samwers In Europe". Tech Crunch. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  8. [8]
    "Lesara expandiert nach Frankreich". derhandel.de. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  9. [9]
    Nisen, Max. "How Fab.com went from a $1 billion valuation to a $15 million fire sale". qz.com.
  10. [10]
    "Das Insolvenzverfahren ist durch Beschluss des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg vom 11.01.2023 (AZ: 36f IN 600/17) nach…".
  11. [11]
    "ProSiebenSat.1 bewertet Amorelie mit fast 100 Millionen Euro". Gründerszene Magazin (in German). 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  12. [12]
    "Lesara Uses Agile Management and Data to Meet Retail Fashion Trends". insights.samsung.com. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  13. [13]
    Nadya, Khoja (20 July 2016). "Changing Clothes: How Agile Retail is Disrupting the Fashion Industry". business.com. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  14. [14]
    Lara, Martino (28 June 2016). "Roman Kirsch (Lesara): Il segreto del nostro ecommerce? Qualita, senza intermediari". startupitalia.eu. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  15. [15]
    "Lesara is Europe's fastest growing company". Ecommerce News. 2016-05-30. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  16. [16]
    "Gewinner Technology Fast 50 im Überblick". Deloitte Deutschland (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  17. [17]
    "#24 How to run a company with 300+ employees in your 20s - Growth Show". pod.co. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  18. [18]
    "Fitvia: Dieser deutsche Hidden Champion macht achtstellige Umsätze mit Detox-Tee". Daily (in German). 2018-08-21. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
  19. [19]
    Schnor, Pauline (2019-06-07). "Pharmakonzern kauft Tee-Startup Fitvia". Gründerszene Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2019-06-08.
  20. [20]
    "Roman Kirsch: Disruption in der Kosmetikbranche". diskurs - Das Magazin der Weberbank (in German). 28 January 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  21. [21]
    Ksienrzyk, Lisa (18 October 2021). "Softbank macht Enpal mit neuer Riesenrunde zum Unicorn". Business Insider (in German). Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  22. [22]
    Forinyak, Eva (18 October 2021). "Solar Company Enpal Becomes Germany's First "Green Unicorn"". GTAI - Markets Germany. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  23. [23]
    Christina, Kyriasoglou (14 July 2016). "Warum ich die Zalando-App löschen musste". gruenderszene.de. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  24. [24]
    Lunden, Ingrid. "Enpal closes out Series C with $174M from SoftBank for tech to make it easier for homeowners to make the switch to solar energy". TechCrunch. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  25. [25]
    Bort, Callum Burroughs, Hasan Chowdhury, Riddhi Kanetkar, Tasmin Lockwood, Michael Cogley, Shona Ghosh, Julie. "Seed 50: The best of Europe's early-stage investors". Business Insider. Retrieved 27 September 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. [26]
    Preuss, Simone (18 March 2019). "What led to Lesara's bankruptcy?". fashionunited.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  27. [27]
    "Lesara hat Insolvenz beantragt | MDR.DE". 3 August 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-03. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  28. [28]
    Martin, Iain. "HelloFresh Founder Lists $300 Million SPAC For European Tech Buyouts". Forbes. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  29. [29]
    "Tio Tech a Shutting Down | DealFlow's SPAC News". 12 April 2023.
  30. [30]
    "30 under 30 Europe". forbes.com. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  31. [31]
    "Seite nicht gefunden". Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  32. [32]
    "Shaper's Profile - ROMAN KIRSCH". globalshapers.org. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
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