Crédit Agricole Private Equity invests in Germany’s Upside Shopping GmbH

For immediate release – October 11, 2010

Upside Shopping GmbH finalised a financing round with Crédit Agricole Private Equity, as lead investor, alongside its historical financial investors and Rocket Internet GmbH, a seed fund structure in Berlin.

A Berlin-based start up, Upside Shopping runs the www.Dealstreet.de website, an auction and shopping platform for new high-end electronics products. Its auction approach combines suspense and entertainment and enables visitors to conclude “good deals”.

Founded in May 2009, Upside Shopping very rapidly succeeded in imposing its platform as a must in the area of entertainment shopping. Its success can be attributed to its innovative commercial software and efficient technology that guarantees that at all times, even in very busy periods, visitors will have real-time access to the auction sales.

Christian Claussen, Senior Partner within Crédit Agricole Private Equity’s Venture Capital Team in charge of business development in Germany and Northern Europe, comments: “Entertainment shopping is a fast-growing market with high growth potential. In this area, Upside Shopping proposes a very interesting product, thanks to its excellent innovation in terms of online service and its as yet unparalleled level of quality.”

This deal is part of a close cooperation between Crédit Agricole Private Equity and Rocket Internet GmbH, the Samwer brothers’ Berlin-based seed fund structure.

Owned by Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer, successful German entrepreneurs and investors, Rocket Internet develops new concepts in the areas of the Internet and mobile phones. The Samwer brothers made a name for themselves by founding Alando (bought by eBay in 1999 to become eBay.de) and Jamba (bought by VeriSign in 2004). They earned their excellent reputation by successfully identifying future concepts and developing them into positions of leadership in their markets. The companies they have founded currently have annual sales of more than €1 billion.

The purpose of the partnership is to develop innovative e-commerce models designed in Germany. Crédit Agricole Private Equity will enable Rocket Internet to support promising projects from their creation throughout their life cycle.

“Rocket Internet GmbH is the ideal catalyst for rapidly identifying promising interesting concepts with the best possibility of success in a relatively confused commercial environment, and for supporting them at all stages in their growth,” says Christian Claussen.

Investors
Christian Claussen, Senior Partner, Venture Capital, Crédit Agricole Private Equity
Xavier Brunaud, Associate, Venture Capital, Crédit Agricole Private Equity

Crédit Agricole Private Equity legal counsel
BMH Bräutigam & Partner (Berlin)

About Crédit Agricole Private Equity

Crédit Agricole Private Equity is an AMF-accredited asset management subsidiary of Crédit Agricole S.A., specialising in direct investment in non-listed companies. A multi-specialist player in the private equity market, it has a team of 95 professionals operating in a variety of fields (LBO & Expansion, Venture Capital, Mezzanine, Co-Investment, Renewable Energy, PPP Infrastructure, etc.), and manages €2.8 billion through various private equity vehicles (FCPRs, SICARs, FCPIs and SCRs).
The 12-strong venture capital team manages €400 million through FCPIs invested in young companies with high growth potential in 2 sectors: information technology and life sciences.

www-rec.omnescapital.com

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