The unicorn is a mythical creature in the form of a horse with a long horn in the middle of the forehead, but also a startup whose value exceeds the limit of one billion dollars. It has been an unprecedented phenomenon in the Czech Republic, but this is no longer the case. Tomáš Čupr is now sitting on the unicorn, announcing that he has made another large investment for his online supermarket Rohlik.cz and exceeded the mythical billion mark for the first time. And now he plans to conquer the whole of Europe.
It’s been exactly four months since Tomáš Čupr went to Rohlík attracted the largest startup investment in Czech history. Since then, however, he has not lazed at all, he has definitely convinced investors that his online supermarket can become a leading player in the whole of Europe, and he has run for several more billions of crowns. Thanks to this, he is entering the Czech startup history again – this time as the first purebred unicorn, as the value of Rohlík has so far stopped at $ 1.2 billion.
This is due to the latest inflow of money within the financing of the C series, in which the Rohlik Group, which covers the online supermarket business across European markets, received another 100 million euros, in terms of 2.5 billion crowns. The investment was led by the renowned Index Ventures fund and followed on from the previous round in March, in which Tomáš Čupr was able to raise as much as 190 million euros. This year, it has already received roughly 7.4 billion crowns from investors for the development of Rohlík.
“This investment shows our investors’ confidence in the group’s rapid growth. We are now perceived as a European company capable of expanding rapidly in very demanding Western European markets. The newly acquired funding helps us accelerate even faster than we originally intended. Especially in the area of entering new markets and automation of fulfillment centers, “ comments on the new investment Tomáš Čupr, which is also a part of our selection of the greatest innovators Innovators 20.
Purebred unicorn from the Czech Republic
The 38-year-old businessman founded Rohlik.cz in 2014 and after establishing it in the Czech Republic, he gradually went abroad. It started in Hungary, recently added Austria and in the coming months will also open Germany, where it will start operating in Munich. In 2020, the entire group achieved sales in excess of 300 million euros, which is more than 7.6 billion crowns, and it seems to be just the beginning. Thanks to the newly acquired investment, Rohlík should accelerate further in its growth.
Tomáš Čupr is already planning plans to expand to other countries, including Romania, Italy, France and Spain, and his calendar is thus fully charged. On the occasion of the signing of the last investment, which catapulted the value of his company over a billion dollars, he certainly found time for at least a small celebration, because the status of the first purebred startup unicorn from the Czech Republic will no longer be denied to him.
Founder of Rohlik.cz Tomáš Čupr
–
We do not mention the purebred attribute by chance. When there has been a debate in recent years about who could become the first domestic unicorn, some argued that we already have one. The antivirus giant Avast really grew into a company whose valuation – today even on the stock exchange – counts in billions of dollars, but as a classic startup unicorn it is usually not perceived very much.
Although there is no universally valid definition of a startup, the basic parameter is that it is a private company that is growing rapidly and regularly raises new capital in the form of investments from venture capital investors. It is they who always determine the desired value of the company in a given investment round, and if it exceeds one billion dollars, the startup will become the mentioned unicorn.
Avast, which was founded in 1988, reached the value of a billion dollars for the first time before it went public, but for a slightly different, today’s non-start-up situation. An unspecified amount, which Avast valued at one billion dollars, was not sent to Avast by investors from CVC Capital until 2014, more than twenty-five years after the company was founded. That is why it is not considered by most experts to be a pure startup unicorn.
In any case, there is no dispute about this designation at Rohlík, and with strong investors in the back, Tomáš Čupr wants to move the whole group further. “We always focus on creating the best possible offer for our customers. The new investment helps us to continue to innovate and develop new technological tools that will accelerate the development of the food industry and bring a digital revolution. “ says the founder of an online supermarket.
Winning recipe
A huge volume of investments is currently flowing into the entire sector, and Rohlík is far from the only company that can be proud of its multibillion-dollar injections. In Europe alone, several other online supermarkets are growing, services are now a trend that can deliver selected goods, including food, within 10 minutes, and they are entering the segment even players like Let’s Give Food, which coincidentally was founded by Tomáš Čupr.
To the German online supermarket Bringmeister Recently, the domestic group Rockaway also invested and it is with him that Rohlík will soon encounter the large market of our western neighbors. In Germany, it will operate under the Knuspr.de brand and will be a key test in its expansion plans. Germany is by far the largest and most competitive market in which it will operate. However, investors have no doubt that it will prevail.
“Rohlík, which is already profitable in its largest market, is experiencing strong growth in new regions and is achieving better results in all indicators. Its unique model, which combines comfort with a complete range of products, from basic goods to high-quality local products, is proving to be a winning recipe, ” says Jan Hammer, Czech partner of Index Ventures.
As the Rohlik Group has changed its structure in recent months, there is no longer any public information about the group’s individual shareholders, however, since the last investment we know that in addition to Index Ventures, the French fund Partech Ventures has become a significant partner. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, J&T Bank, R2G, Quadrille Capital and the domestic investment group Enern should also continue to hold shares in the company. Tomáš Čupr still has an absolute majority.
In addition to the further activities of Rohlík himself, it will certainly be interesting to see who will join him in the exclusive club of domestic unicorns. According to the available clues, the closest should probably be the two startups that connect the Czech founders and operations in the USA. It should be close after a recent major investment by Hubert Palán and Daniel Hejl and apparently also ShipMonk by Jan Bednář. Before the pandemic, another hot candidate was a startup Mews, backed by Richard Valtr.
–
