Roman Kirsch

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

Roman Kirsch
Born
Roman Kirsch

(1988-07-03) July 3, 1988
Almaty, Kazakhstan
NationalityGerman
Alma materWHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management
London School of Economics
OccupationTech Entrepreneur
Years active2003-present
Parent(s)Waldemar Kirsch and Helene Kirsch
Websiteromankirsch.com

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