Roman Kirsch | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Roman Kirsch July 3, 1988 Almaty, Kazakhstan |
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management London School of Economics |
| Occupation | Tech Entrepreneur |
| Years active | 2003-present |
| Parent(s) | Waldemar Kirsch and Helene Kirsch |
| Website | romankirsch |
Roman Kirsch is a German serial entrepreneur and investor in the tech- and consumer-internet-space. [1] [2] [3]
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.
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]
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