Web 2.0 VC Fred Wilson, best known for his early investments in Flickr, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Etsy & Co., is taking a tour through Europe.
Lukasz Gadowski, the founder of Spreadshirt and one of Europe's most active business angels, has introduced him to a collection of his e-commerce investments in Berlin, amongst others Brands4Friends, DaWanda, Smava, Triphunter, etc.
Fred Wilson has summarized his impressions of the European startup circuit in his blog, covering topics such as private shopping clubs, which at the moment seems to be the hottest e-commerce concept within VC circles:
"And in some areas, the europeans are inventing business models. Take the “private sale” model. It was first executed by a French company called Vente Privee which is now an very big business.
I don’t have any access to information to confirm this, but I’ve heard that Vente Privee does over 500mm euros in annual turnover (as they call revenue over here). And at very high margins for a retailing business.
I saw two similar businesses in Berlin today and it’s clear to me that the europeans are ahead of the US in executing this business model. We have several companies doing this in the states now, like Gilt Group and at least one other. But the US are followers, not the innovators, in this category."
But Americans are indeed catching up very quickly in this area. From what we hear on the corporate grapevine and watching the Google search traffic, it seems that especially Ruelala is on the right track.
Most recently launched is The Top Secret, which counts as the fifth launched American private shopping club.
Related posts:
- RueLaLa: $25 Million for New Shopping Club
- How Vente-Privée Manages Up to 30,000 Orders Per Day
- HauteLook to Attract with Video Featurettes
Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.
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