Roman Kirsch Explained

Roman Kirsch
Birth Name:Roman Kirsch
Birth Date:3 July 1988
Birth Place:Almaty, Kazakhstan
Nationality:German
Alma Mater:WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
London School of Economics
Occupation:Tech entrepreneur
Years Active:2003–present
Parents:Waldemar Kirsch and Helene Kirsch

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

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. 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).

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

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Li . Charmaine . Meet Roman Kirsch, the 25-year-old founder who sold his startup to Fab . 28 January 2021 . Tech.eu . 16 May 2014.
  2. News: Heuberger . Sarah . Das sind die bisher unbekannten Investments von Roman Kirsch . 28 January 2021 . Business Insider . 23 July 2020 . de-DE.
  3. News: Bracht . Anke . Roman Kirsch: Disruption in the cosmetics industry . 28 January 2021 . The Weberbank magazine.
  4. Web site: WHU Alumni among Forbes "30 under 30" . 2016-02-25 . . 2017-07-10.
  5. Web site: Roman Kirsch . 2 May 2012 . TheEuropean . de . 15 November 2016.
  6. News: Lesara's Roman Kirsch on how to build a fashion empire . Anna . Isaac . 2017-01-03 . . 2017-07-07.
  7. Web site: Fab Buys Casacanda For $11 million To Fight The Samwers In Europe . Tech Crunch . 20 February 2012 . 5 November 2016.
  8. News: Lesara expandiert nach Frankreich . derhandel.de. 8 August 2016.
  9. Web site: Nisen . Max . How Fab.com went from a $1 billion valuation to a $15 million fire sale . qz.com . en.
  10. Web site: Das Insolvenzverfahren ist durch Beschluss des Amtsgerichts Charlottenburg vom 11.01.2023 (AZ: 36f IN 600/17) nach… .
  11. Web site: ProSiebenSat.1 bewertet Amorelie mit fast 100 Millionen Euro . 2018-07-27 . Gründerszene Magazin . de . 2019-06-05.
  12. News: Lesara Uses Agile Management and Data to Meet Retail Fashion Trends . insights.samsung.com. 8 August 2016.
  13. News: Nadya . Khoja . Changing Clothes: How Agile Retail is Disrupting the Fashion Industry . business.com. 20 July 2016 . 8 August 2016.
  14. News: Lara . Martino . Roman Kirsch (Lesara): Il segreto del nostro ecommerce? Qualita, senza intermediari . startupitalia.eu. 28 June 2016 . 8 August 2016.
  15. Web site: Lesara is Europe's fastest growing company . 2016-05-30 . Ecommerce News . en-US . 2019-06-05.
  16. Web site: Gewinner Technology Fast 50 im Überblick . Deloitte Deutschland . de . 2019-06-05.
  17. Web site: #24 How to run a company with 300+ employees in your 20s – Growth Show . pod.co . 28 January 2021.
  18. Web site: Fitvia: Dieser deutsche Hidden Champion macht achtstellige Umsätze mit Detox-Tee . 2018-08-21 . Daily . de-DE . 2019-06-05.
  19. Web site: Pharmakonzern kauft Tee-Startup Fitvia . Schnor . Pauline . 2019-06-07 . Gründerszene Magazin . de . 2019-06-08.
  20. Web site: Roman Kirsch: Disruption in der Kosmetikbranche . diskurs – Das Magazin der Weberbank . 18 January 2022 . de-DE . 28 January 2020.
  21. News: Ksienrzyk . Lisa . Softbank macht Enpal mit neuer Riesenrunde zum Unicorn . 10 August 2022 . Business Insider . 18 October 2021 . de-DE.
  22. News: Forinyak . Eva . Solar Company Enpal Becomes Germany's First "Green Unicorn" . 10 August 2022 . GTAI – Markets Germany . 18 October 2021.
  23. News: Christina . Kyriasoglou . Warum ich die Zalando-App löschen musste . gruenderszene.de. 14 July 2016 . 8 August 2016.
  24. News: 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 . 10 August 2022 . TechCrunch.
  25. News: Bort . Callum Burroughs, Hasan Chowdhury, Riddhi Kanetkar, Tasmin Lockwood, Michael Cogley, Shona Ghosh, Julie . Seed 50: The best of Europe's early-stage investors . 27 September 2022 . Business Insider.
  26. News: Preuss . Simone . What led to Lesara's bankruptcy? . 28 January 2021 . fashionunited.uk . 18 March 2019 . en-gb.
  27. News: Lesara hat Insolvenz beantragt MDR.DE . https://web.archive.org/web/20190803053933/https://www.mdr.de/thueringen/lesara-logistikzentrum-erfurt-offenbar-insolvenz-100.html . dead . 2019-08-03 . 28 January 2021 . 3 August 2019.
  28. News: Martin . Iain . HelloFresh Founder Lists $300 Million SPAC For European Tech Buyouts . 18 January 2022 . Forbes . en.
  29. Web site: Tio Tech a Shutting Down | DealFlow's SPAC News . 12 April 2023 .
  30. 30 under 30 Europe . forbes.com. 8 August 2016.
  31. News: Seite nicht gefunden . 18 January 2022.
  32. News: Shaper's Profile – ROMAN KIRSCH. globalshapers.org. 8 August 2016. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160914221944/https://www.globalshapers.org/shapers/roman-kirsch. 14 September 2016.

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