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]
Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership-only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. As of March 2024, Metro is operating 626 wholesale stores in 21 countries, including Europe, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.
WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is a private German business school with campuses in Vallendar and Düsseldorf, Germany. As of September 2023, there are 1,989 students at WHU, about 248 employees and 59 professors.
Simmons & Simmons is an international law firm with headquarters in London, UK. About half of its staff are in the London office, in CityPoint, off Moorgate. It has offices in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The firm serves customers worldwide, with practices covering asset management, investment funds, energy and infrastructure, finance, life sciences, technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.
Campus for Finance Association is a student association at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany. It was founded in 2001 in cooperation with the Endowed Chair of Finance, held by Prof. Dr. Markus Rudolf, to support and organize the student-run “Campus for Finance”-conferences. The association annually hosts the “WHU New Year’s Conference” and the “WHU Private Equity Conference”. The mission of the association is entitled “Uniting the World of Finance”.
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Christopher Muhr is a German serial entrepreneur with investments and board seats in startups in Europe, Israel and North America. He is best known for co-founding Groupon International (Citydeal), Canadian Mattress brand Endy, prop tech startup McMakler and scaling Auto1 in the role of COO.
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Harry's is an American company that manufactures and sells shaving equipment and men's personal care products via online and retail channels. The company is known for their subscription service where customers receive new razor blades, shaving cream, and other grooming products by mail. Harry's is based in New York.
Lesara was a clothing e-commerce site founded in Berlin in 2013. On November 9, 2018, the company filed for bankruptcy.
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Antonia Albert is an Austrian business economist and entrepreneur. In 2015, she co-founded the startup Careship in Berlin, Germany as an online marketplace for in-home senior care. Albert helped raise $4 million in investor funding in 2017, and an additional $6 million in 2018. Careship has expanded to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the cities of Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.
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Serden Özcan is a professor and holder of the Otto Beisheim Endowed Chair of Innovation and Corporate Transformation at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar near Koblenz. During the 2017/2018 academic year the Chair of Innovation and Corporate Transformation moved from Vallendar to Düsseldorf.
Martin Fassnacht is a German economist, professor and director of the Chair of Strategy and Marketing at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Managementin Düsseldorf.
Florian Heinemann is a German entrepreneur, venture capitalist and angel investor.
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Robin E. Haak is a German political scientist, tech entrepreneur and investor from Hanover, Germany.
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