Meet Hidden Giant in Shoppers Rewards: Global Savings Group — Founder Interview
- Juan Diego Parra Castillo
- 2 days ago
- 28 min read
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
This article is part of our coverage of Scaleup Founder Interviews from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Executive Summary
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.
The Global Savings Group (GSG) is not a fintech.
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Meet Hidden Giant in Shoppers Rewards: Global Savings Group — Founder Interview Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
Executive Summary
The Global Savings Group (GSG) is not a fintech. They are a hidden champion as Europe’s leading shopping rewards company, founded in 2012. They are offering an alternative to the GAFA channels and are active in 20+ countries under different brands. Amongst their clients are small merchants and well-known global companies.
“We try to offer an alternative to the GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon] channels, but we don’t do classical advertising”Gerhard Trautmann, CEO and Co-Founder GSG
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The video interview is set to go live on Thursday, September 15th, 2022
The Audio Interview
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“We have only one technical platform that powers our products.”Gerhard Trautmann, CEO and Co-Founder GSG
The Founder
This time Gerhard Trautmann (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerhard-trautmann-456586a0) is our guest, the CEO and co-founder of Munich-based Global Savings Group (https://www.global-savings-group.com/). If you have not heard of them, they are active in 20+ countries under different brand names. He met his co-founders while still working in management consulting, and they decided to make their Powerpoint slides reality.
“Oliver Samwer said he did not like our ideas, but we could be a cool team.”Gerhard Trautmann, CEO and Co-Founder GSG
The Company
Global Savings Group (https://www.global-savings-group.com/) is not a fintech company, they are working in the affiliate marketing space. They call themself a lead generation company, including couponing pages. They are active in 20+ countries with multiple websites across Europe. They won the German Deloitte Fast 50 Award. They own several commerce content portals. Some of their largest markets are the UK and France, even though they are headquartered in Munich. The company was started in cooperation with Rocket Internet. Amongst their clients are small merchants and adidas, Just Eat, IKEA, dyson, Lenovo, SAMSUNG, ebay, Nike, H&M, Booking.com, O2, Sephora, and Ray Ban.
They are also working with large media companies including Focus, CNN, El Pais, IG.com (Brazil), Le Express (France), Business Insider and One India on deals, discounts and coupons.
“We funded our acquistions as a combination from our profits, loans and exchange of shares”Gerhard Trautmann, CEO and Co-Founder GSG
Venture Capital Funding
The company raised in total M 79 US$ in funding since interception in 2012 up to Series D. They did not disclose the amount of their last funding in 2021. Amongst their investors are General Global Capital, TRP Global, HV Capital, Groupe M6, Rocket Internet, DTCP, New Enterprise Associates, and Headline.
Open to Talk to Takeover Targets
GSG wants to grow organically but is open to talking to companies that feel like they could add to their journey.
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Further Readings / Additional Resources
Weisswurstfrühstück (White Sausage Breakfast) Places in Munich
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The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Automated Transcript
00:00:00.000 → 00:00:07.920Music.
00:00:07.762 → 00:00:13.455That I owe you were podcast and YouTube blog covering the German.
00:00:14.163 → 00:00:22.565With News interviews and Live Eventshello and welcome everybody this is true.
00:00:22.850 → 00:00:36.006From startuprad.io your startup podcast and you to block from the german-speaking startup scene today’s interview is brought to you again by startuprad.io cam the most easiest and efficient
00:00:35.841 → 00:00:36.510wait
00:00:36.498 → 00:00:49.599to look for investors and cooperation Partners today I do have a guest Tada no surprise here but we would talk about marketing and advertising together with Gerhard hey how you doing.
00:00:49.794 → 00:00:52.255Hi urine thanks for having me.
00:00:52.558 → 00:01:03.408Totally my pleasure but before we get started with all of what we have ahead of us you are based in Munich can you explain
00:01:03.315 → 00:01:09.134to a person not from unique what advice was forced to kiss
00:01:09.050 → 00:01:19.360so you had absolutely happy to do so Munich is the probably most of you guys have heard about it from the Oktoberfest
00:01:19.349 → 00:01:28.669so it is D place for great beer and for great Vice verse as you are was saying and vice versa push straight it’s basically a
00:01:28.621 → 00:01:42.577white sausage breakfast if you were translated literally is literally the breakfast we have here in Munich very often in comments Saturdays and Sundays before 12:00 that’s very important it needs to be before 12:
00,00:01:42.628 → 00:01:50.733why because there’s quite some history behind it that back in time the sausages would only be fresh until 12.
00:01:51.226 → 00:01:56.225So compared to a normal sausage it is one that you need to cut up.
00:01:56.357 → 00:02:06.352Remove sort of say the layer and then you have a wonderful white sausage with some sweet.
00:02:06.493 → 00:02:20.927Mustard and what we call a wonderful bretzel a pretzel and that in combination is a classic here in Munich that you can get everywhere and we want happy to share some recommendations on the,
00:02:21.023 → 00:02:28.066best restaurants we can get themweek we will link them down here in the show notes he’ll sent me two links
00:02:27.955 → 00:02:40.183afterwards plus it is on the weekend it’s legal even to have a beer with that even though I personally prefer the ones without alcohol in the morning you are,
00:02:40.216 → 00:02:43.217Jer hot one of the three founders.
00:02:43.466 → 00:02:52.453Global savings group and before we get into any confusions this is not a micro savings fintech you’re completely in,
00:02:52.495 → 00:02:57.818different space I would not completely exclude you from a little bit
00:02:57.644 → 00:03:08.648the fintech surroundings because you’re also dealing with sales you also delete a little bit with finances but most of the time you are more what
00:03:08.546 → 00:03:18.478people could describe as a really huge affiliate Network even though I realize you don’t like the term affiliate right,
00:03:18.521 → 00:03:22.791yeah that’s absolutely right here and so in essence.
00:03:22.896 → 00:03:32.261In essence what we do is we re you know you could call this a media intent company or a lead generation company The Wider e-commerce space,
00:03:32.276 → 00:03:39.661so what do we do on the one side in essence we connect consumers with advertisers advertisers you really.
00:03:39.865 → 00:03:49.851The big the big brands in the whole e-commerce space the ones sort of say they didn’t we all daily you know do our purchases on from Adidas up to eBay,
00:03:49.938 → 00:03:59.844after Amazon and what we do is look we connect consumers by actually it’s for a wide variety of portals.
00:04:00.021 → 00:04:07.766From our core offering is all around helping consumers make better purchase decisions so you know offers and ranges from.
00:04:07.997 → 00:04:17.731You know cashback portals that we operate we have quite a variety of discount portals on couponing basically are able to get discount codes,
00:04:17.791 → 00:04:31.910up to you know what we say called Product recommendations where you know we have our hand-picked deals and we will basically advise consumers on C deals that cannot miss out.
00:04:32.051 → 00:04:39.589And you know in essence you know the core mission of the companies all around helping people to have a better life.
00:04:39.694 → 00:04:50.581But actually enjoying these type of opportunities while actually the same time helping our advertising colleagues and clients to actually get access to a wide consumer base.
00:04:50.812 → 00:04:54.443And that’s a bit how we connect the dots in each generation is that the essence of.
00:04:55.466 → 00:05:01.392It talking about the retailers and Brands I found on your website
00:05:01.263 → 00:05:12.672Adidas Ikea Lenovo Nike hm booking.com tziporah and Ray-Ban just to name a few so you’re not necessarily working with
00:05:12.660 → 00:05:20.108the smallest guys even though I do understand that even smaller Merchants are your clients
00:05:19.970 → 00:05:29.137going a little bit before I’m Global savings group we may approach a privilege as DSG
00:05:29.125 → 00:05:38.671you know I love the TLA stuff three-letter acronyms here and I found that you’ve got no round quite a bit you did a pH
00:05:38.596 → 00:05:50.815D and you work for Siemens management consulting interestingly in Munich in São Paulo in my old in my old town Beijing where also lift and
00:05:50.659 → 00:05:57.819Tel Aviv what did you do there where did you learn there and most interestingly why did he
00:05:57.744 → 00:06:04.246jump ship from a management consulting position at Siemens to start.
00:06:04.378 → 00:06:10.467Marketing technology lead generation company yeah that’s a great question and.
00:06:10.761 → 00:06:18.776There’s no logical there’s no logical connection but I’m happy to share it with the story so.
00:06:19.322 → 00:06:29.939Let’s start with let’s start with you know the my studies so I graduated,
00:06:30.017 → 00:06:37.474here in Germany from a business school where by the way I also met in our math pre-course so to say my.
00:06:37.579 → 00:06:50.635Today’s co-founder colleague okay so that’s the first connection so we study together and business and you know it’s basically to be honest the whole phds thing
00:06:50.614 → 00:06:56.855I was a bit younger than the average so I started with 21 and I didn’t want to get into work correctly.
00:06:57.105 → 00:07:04.543That’s why it’s not okay how can I extend the good student life for a couple of more years and and honestly you know.
00:07:04.703 → 00:07:14.365I did a PhD but it was I would call it a very practical PhD and look that’s actually what I meant.
00:07:14.497 → 00:07:20.108It’s through you can see you know Adrienne who it’s different than that University went to Mackenzie.
00:07:20.357 → 00:07:25.771Another consulting company and that’s how we met third co-founder
00:07:25.750 → 00:07:40.462I’m through the McKinsey Network because those guys met at a coffee machine and actually report from you know doing slides for big corporate companies and you know that’s a bit how to circle in terms of how the three of us connected it came.
00:07:40.685 → 00:07:45.846And yeah look I think it seems management consulting why the hell did I go there,
00:07:45.924 → 00:07:51.958look I had a quite a big passion for renewable energy for actually alternative energy for.
00:07:52.063 → 00:07:59.385You know there’s a lot of movement a lot of obviously you know great technology development that was actually in Israel.
00:07:59.553 → 00:08:14.221Um working on solar energy powers Towers so that was one type of Technology than you know in São Paulo we were working on a project where we would actually build across the whole amazonas a
00:08:14.137 → 00:08:21.072high voltage grid so basically once half through the whole country and so on so I love I love the whole energy sector
00:08:21.402 → 00:08:25.852I didn’t love the Management Consultant part too much dope.
00:08:26.056 → 00:08:35.790And as a result you know like four years down the road in the big corporate doing tons of projects you know I met again with the two guys who actually did.
00:08:35.913 → 00:08:49.195Mackenzie stuff and we met for beer and we figured we’re all kind of tired from drawing slides and from doing you know Consulting but actually want to try something or else and own our decisions.
00:08:49.651 → 00:08:51.958And somehow you know get.
00:08:52.127 → 00:09:05.381Get our own ideas into into real life and not just on a PowerPoint slide so hence you know we we more or less all embarked on what you would call classical leaf for 6 months.
00:09:05.801 → 00:09:15.148And during those six months we you know this is true by the way this is 2012 in terms of timeline rate,
00:09:15.244 → 00:09:24.142the whole German ecosystem for startups and venture capital of General was pretty.
00:09:24.436 → 00:09:28.283At its infancy all right and you know we were.
00:09:28.469 → 00:09:40.742We’re having our students a package of ideas of what we potentially would want to be able to do and when the Met different you know incubators and Berlin
00:09:40.712 → 00:09:46.233you know exchanged ideas and one of those you know.
00:09:46.545 → 00:09:54.263Very familiar territory this year in Germany internationally probably also known under the name of Rocket internet.
00:09:54.449 → 00:09:59.935So we met with all of a Samba and he basically told us look.
00:10:00.193 → 00:10:10.683I don’t like the radius but I kind of think you guys could be kind of a cool cool team and you know we kind of went into that hole
00:10:10.608 → 00:10:15.373craziness of his and thought hey look this guy has done tons of successful companies in the past.
00:10:15.596 → 00:10:21.432I’m one of the most famous serial entrepreneurs we have in the back in time probably still now in Europe.
00:10:21.888 → 00:10:25.600So with him we started our first company called drop gifts
00:10:25.543 → 00:10:38.311okay this is how we enter it was more or less a idea that rocket internet port forward and it was all about social gifting I’ll spare you the details because it failed miserably after 4 months.
00:10:38.560 → 00:10:43.145And after four months you know there was one realization which was.
00:10:43.314 → 00:10:50.149You know a lot of the consumers actually would trying to somehow interact with our product which basically would enable.
00:10:50.470 → 00:10:56.649You know through Facebook to get access to gift cards that you can send to your friends.
00:10:56.880 → 00:11:03.572We figured that they didn’t want to send gift cards to their friends but they actually want to remove curse themselves on our platform.
00:11:03.776 → 00:11:12.412And hence we stumbled somehow through this experience into the whole area of reality couponing gift cards and cash back.
00:11:12.562 → 00:11:18.443So it was more or less you know we stumbled into this it wasn’t you know that we.
00:11:18.629 → 00:11:25.501Went and found a misery no problem that we had to solve for the world but you know it was a big coincidence and here we go.
00:11:26.560 → 00:11:39.626You just met a guy who set you straight in the face I don’t like your ideas but I think you’re cool team and you went with him I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during this conversation.
00:11:40.073 → 00:11:52.400Okay I see and that was the time a global savings group was born just in Germany even though I realized you guys did.
00:11:52.658 → 00:11:58.107Quite a lot of Acquisitions over time but that’s something we’ll get,
00:11:58.122 → 00:12:10.323to and what was the basic approach you started with for Lee did you already start as a lead generator for merchants for brands,
00:12:10.375 → 00:12:20.937yeah absolutely so the basic approach we took you know again would like to highlight this was 2012 when we started sort of say this adventure.
00:12:21.087 → 00:12:23.7552012 the concept of grief,
00:12:23.824 → 00:12:34.134was massive so Brazil Russia India China so the first the first thing we did was we looked into the couponing space.
00:12:34.528 → 00:12:44.118Online coupons okay so literally to explain it very briefly it’s a concept where you literally as a consumer.
00:12:44.250 → 00:12:58.017Get access to you know the best online coupons from a wide variety of big Brands and you can redeem them and check out and thereby save some extra money and we started with that Concept in Brazil,
00:12:58.033 → 00:13:05.741and in India and we piloted their launch the product tested it and wanted to get the feeling.
00:13:05.982 → 00:13:14.393If we serve as they get good traction there because in Europe our feeling was that the whole concept and idea is pretty saturated.
00:13:15.191 → 00:13:28.625Um and look at what happened was we got very quickly a lot of traction we felt that from day one the whole Market all right when you talk about the wider Market in this space you know,
00:13:28.685 → 00:13:34.909there’s you know unfortunately not a great Terminus to coined the space but now I would maybe call it.
00:13:35.158 → 00:13:42.210Intent-based media if you want to use that wording or Converse contents and other way to describe it but.
00:13:42.441 → 00:13:45.531Literally we figured that this whole Space is hydrofracking.
00:13:45.862 → 00:13:53.336So there’s tons and tons and tons of small sides Computing and every Market but there’s nothing like a lot of big reputable companies doing that.
00:13:53.604 → 00:13:56.154In the US we started like one or two you know.
00:13:56.448 → 00:14:10.810Major Lighthouse so say Brands and sites that were already out there such as recruiting rewards and they served as a role model for us and and hence you know what we did was we started in break what we’re very successful in Brazil in India.
00:14:11.059 → 00:14:19.308Partially in Russia didn’t do China and then as we took the learnings we roll it out across all of Europe.
00:14:19.548 → 00:14:25.123And then 2018 we even went out into us where we not acted as well.
00:14:26.309 → 00:14:39.734ICC so basically you started the company in Munich but your was at first not your main target I still active in India or Brazil.
00:14:40.496 → 00:14:51.464So yes we are active in both markets and you know we were active with our own websites but we’re also active and is this you know one.
00:14:51.668 → 00:14:59.98911 important angle I wouldn’t call it another pivot but it was a great addition which was at some point we realized that.
00:15:00.292 → 00:15:08.766There was a lot of value by actually partnering up with the largest media companies in every country so without a words.
00:15:09.070 → 00:15:18.300What we do is part of our business is that we have strategic Partnerships with the largest Nationwide media publishers such as IG in Brazil.
00:15:18.756 → 00:15:24.403For one time one time to India India and India.
00:15:24.580 → 00:15:30.525And what we do is we actually host our white label solution to White Label product.
00:15:30.783 → 00:15:36.385Within their overall system connected very well with their audiences,
00:15:36.427 → 00:15:46.468and actually offer deals discounts coupons for these Publishers in the US you know it’s with a CNN The Business Insider.
00:15:46.771 → 00:15:53.040So really we look for the large Nationwide need to Publishers that have a lot of traffic and audience.
00:15:53.226 → 00:16:01.547And that has worked incredibly well it’s a great new Revenue stream for media companies to basically Finance journalists and hence something that,
00:16:01.607 → 00:16:04.076why I don’t like the word affiliate,
00:16:04.154 → 00:16:15.608because it’s you know even media companies are doing affiliate as one Revenue stream and that’s I think how in general determinants of affiliate needs to be perceived it’s a way to sort of say.
00:16:15.821 → 00:16:22.495Generate to say yeah revenue and in a way to.
00:16:22.726 → 00:16:32.460Monetize it’s a monetization description but it’s not a good way to describe a business model and enhance you know look these media sites.
00:16:32.755 → 00:16:36.971Our Media Partners haven’t been a fantastic.
00:16:37.229 → 00:16:45.010Have been fantastic for both sides to to scale footer to business within Europe but also you know as I said in the US.
00:16:45.916 → 00:16:53.517I see so basically there’s a what do you say your competition is still very much factored.
00:16:54.351 → 00:17:00.962So yes I would say Consolidated a lot so the entire Market is consolidating which means you know,
00:17:01.031 → 00:17:10.387we’re by far gee today in the space is by far in Europe factor factor 5 to 10 the largest player,
00:17:10.456 → 00:17:18.093so that was you know when we started over time seeing this fragmented set up the opportunity that we saw.
00:17:18.315 → 00:17:30.579Actually combining at the professionalizing we’re making sure that the content that we also provide this highly curated is high-quality and thereby provide you know great experiences for consumers but even more importantly to create a lot of trust.
00:17:30.819 → 00:17:36.809For the advertising brands that collaborate with us to ensure that they feel that they’re getting,
00:17:36.887 → 00:17:46.108you know relevant traffic traffic that is trustworthy and I think that was that was very important because you know if you have tons and tons of small players.
00:17:46.384 → 00:17:53.760It’s very hard to control that if you have one big player or a couple of weeks there’s it’s much easier to collaborate also for free advertising programs such as.
00:17:53.964 → 00:17:58.846You know you can’t be buying all the ones to give Dimension before.
00:17:58.969 → 00:18:10.558So it’s a chopper sui work and I realized you’re actually you guys are big in Europe but not as Global savings group you do,
00:18:10.600 → 00:18:12.314different stuff like
00:18:12.284 → 00:18:26.240in different verticals on different levels however you want to call it I found it interesting that you bought several companies so you driver of the market consolidation 2015 I am bull,
00:18:26.255 → 00:18:32.425in the Netherlands 2019 UK pouch which is
00:18:32.332 → 00:18:42.165browser extension at found this very interesting I’m 2020 French cashback company how is it pronounced I would pronounce it I growl.
00:18:42.351 → 00:18:49.331Yeah it’ll be great yeah and 2021 you bought Shoup berlin-based.
00:18:49.499 → 00:18:57.091Company and with all of them kind of got different products so in the UK you mostly active as
00:18:56.926 → 00:19:04.806pouch and in France you are mostly active as a girl how does this all
00:19:04.659 → 00:19:07.939work together on one or another level,
00:19:08.026 → 00:19:16.878yeah no that’s a great question so I think one way to structure it is and make it a bit more simpler to understand as you can literally say there is a.
00:19:17.388 → 00:19:25.871One common denominator which is our product that there to help people have you know better lives in particular by helping them to save money,
00:19:25.922 → 00:19:28.752um and do that in a very fast and effective way.
00:19:28.884 → 00:19:39.320And that’s a common denominator for all product and on the other side we have a common denominator that we work on the advertising side but the same type of Brands very specific now.
00:19:39.741 → 00:19:52.455How to structure this further is you have two different layers so we have a B2B and b2c to say portfolio in the B2B side we talked about you know media companies which who would partnering up and where our product.
00:19:52.569 → 00:20:03.050You know it is a white label integration for the benefit both of you know news Publishers so they can also monetize your existing audience is better,
00:20:03.147 → 00:20:12.242a while we actually add that to the advertiser mix and we’re adding to that portfolio right so right now we just you know deployed another product.
00:20:12.518 → 00:20:21.028For news Publishers it’s sort of a a product recommendation element where it’s better with the editors.
00:20:21.133 → 00:20:26.006We’re writing the best deals were writing about your five things you know that you should have.
00:20:26.246 → 00:20:33.298I’m as you kind of move back into a home office of move away from home office so there’s a lot of product recommendation topics that were working at.
00:20:33.619 → 00:20:40.455Um together with me to companies and on the other side all right there is the whole Beatrice e-portfolio that you were talking about.
00:20:40.731 → 00:20:51.276Which you know are sites that are running under their own brand and what would you there as we really trying to consolidate the market for.
00:20:51.381 → 00:20:58.748I’m cash back / reality that’s how we call it internally but in essence what those brands do,
00:20:58.808 → 00:21:10.496it’s very similar all right and doesn’t matter if the touch point is a browser extension that automatically helps you to never forget your cash back at it automatically you know applies to base coupon this is what we do for example with pouch.
00:21:10.637 → 00:21:14.997And we have exactly the same type of router extension on each other.
00:21:15.201 → 00:21:26.015And what we’re doing is we have one technical platform that basically Powers these different products and in essence the user experience is however.
00:21:26.139 → 00:21:31.111You know the decor idea is as you go and do your shopping.
00:21:31.243 → 00:21:41.049You know we give you part of your money back right that’s in essence the cashback experience and a lot of the experience today is like that and we’re building on top to actually make sure
00:21:40.956 → 00:21:44.704it’s more than that in the future so we really want to make sure that
00:21:44.575 → 00:21:57.217whenever you go shopping doesn’t matter which brand will reward you okay it could be in the form of a cash back competing form of points it could be the form of giving you some extra couponing some extra gift cards,
00:21:57.223 → 00:22:02.673our that’s our true ambition when we think about this so it’s apt to be
00:22:02.616 → 00:22:09.739portfolio with news Publishers and on the other side or a pgce portfolio and then combination all right.
00:22:10.106 → 00:22:22.514Particularly in Europe and also in u.s. you know driving over 2 to 3 billion of gmv for advertising Brands so we’re really our vision is in this space,
00:22:22.592 → 00:22:29.490to build a smart alternative to the current gafas channels so literally you know.
00:22:29.686 → 00:22:39.456I’m a true alternative marketing channel were Brands can sort of say invest in new customer acquisition but particularly in this is pretty important.
00:22:39.624 → 00:22:52.518In how to convert their existing consumer base better okay so I think you think about us one thing to differentiate as a we’re not doing classical appetizing okay we are not these guys with all of this different.
00:22:52.659 → 00:23:05.689You know click banners we nobody knows anymore where to click and all the fatigue that comes with it hey that’s not our business we’re also not like you know social media platforms where you go for entertaining and then suddenly you click on a link.
00:23:05.866 → 00:23:09.920And end up right it’s also not our business our business is very much,
00:23:10.016 → 00:23:19.048value-driven for consumers so people come and don’t even perceive it as advertising is if we take cash credit or coupon you don’t perceive it as advertising and the other pieces.
00:23:19.279 → 00:23:23.936People come to our sites to shop they don’t come for entertainment and come for shopping,
00:23:23.969 → 00:23:35.360hmm and it’s very contemporary we may add for all audience that gmv is gross Merchants value so that is not your Revenue but basically
00:23:35.285 → 00:23:43.714all of the merchants on the platform what they in total generate on revenue on this platform and then you get a share of that.
00:23:44.485 → 00:23:58.955Correct huh great and we have one more question before we check that box and you talked about one technology platform and your business with the publisher print is also connected to that.
00:23:59.159 → 00:24:09.262That’s correct then stop that’s exactly what we’re doing the way we look at it is every experience that we are able to build and that helps consumers on.
00:24:09.368 → 00:24:18.805Either to be to see side or the B2B side we directly want to be able to replicate it left or right because it adds value so.
00:24:18.937 → 00:24:27.969It’s exactly as you say we’re working towards one integrated platform we’re sort of say we can exchange content offerings as
00:24:27.912 → 00:24:29.193sneezing fit,
00:24:29.200 → 00:24:43.741I was wondering when we talked about that quiz sessions you had some funding but it was not even 80 million the last time I checked crunchbase
00:24:43.693 → 00:24:53.950very interesting investors 79 million u.s. dollars it was and I was wondering how you funded those Acquisitions do you have
00:24:53.893 → 00:25:06.067one big fund that actually is interested of helping you to consolidate and this is they’re buying built building by strategy or are you actually
00:25:06.046 → 00:25:10.127using your own proceeds out of your operational cash flow.
00:25:10.412 → 00:25:20.389Yeah no great question you want so what we’re doing is we’re doing a combination of things so you know there’s nothing like One funds that so say.
00:25:21.323 → 00:25:25.881Helps us but it’s the combination of equity from either.
00:25:26.373 → 00:25:36.692No existing shareholders this quite some depth that we normally also leverage so we work with different banks to actually facilitate transactions.
00:25:37.023 → 00:25:44.038And then there’s our operating cash flow given that the company is profitable that we’re utilizing so combination of those three plus.
00:25:44.207 → 00:25:52.167You know for some of the deals we obviously also have a shared package so we can also do it by exchanging shares.
00:25:52.336 → 00:26:00.792And that’s the mix we’re using for our Acquisitions in the past and certain extent depending on the size of the acquisition.
00:26:01.248 → 00:26:03.717The mixed berries from so.
00:26:04.102 → 00:26:16.348That’s a bit how you can think about so far what I could find you have funded until serious D and your investors include Global General capital T or Peak Lobel
00:26:16.255 → 00:26:25.962HB Capital group M6 rocket internet D TCP new Enterprise Associates n — headline
00:26:25.887 → 00:26:29.572is that correct did I forget somebody important that.
00:26:30.262 → 00:26:41.203No no you haven’t forgot anybody it’s more that there’s one or two who we sort of say not would love to newest you know with ten down ten years down the road
00:26:41.155 → 00:26:44.020so we have one or two who basically
00:26:44.009 → 00:26:54.868left the cap table okay that I do we Founders bought out or other investors bought them out so classical secondary transactions the rest of the names correctly.
00:26:54.937 → 00:27:08.336Audience secondary transactions as we need just sell shares basically what you usually do as a VC you invest money you get additional newly-created chairs but the secondary is just handing over shoes
00:27:08.207 → 00:27:13.017very simplified I’m I was interested in your
00:27:12.915 → 00:27:20.966expansion in Europe and the US I realized you are Market leaders in France UK and Germany
00:27:20.927 → 00:27:23.261you active in more than
00:27:23.132 → 00:27:37.19720 countries at would have found especially interesting is you had a press release in April 20 22 you hired a CTO a CFO a CMO a head of HR
00:27:37.113 → 00:27:40.060enter PR director
00:27:40.003 → 00:27:48.639and they had experiences from companies like Salon do free now Scout 24 flat Coney West Wing Rakuten
00:27:48.528 → 00:28:01.485any no games that actually is an indication that you prepare for another level of scaling is that true so yes the what we felt was that the opportunity,
00:28:01.536 → 00:28:10.253in the space on a lot of it we believe is my you know building out organically the business in the prayer now 700 people
00:28:10.160 → 00:28:17.149right and on the other side why actually managing further.
00:28:17.542 → 00:28:29.320Acquisitions ramune and what we felt is that we’re coming to a critical moment where in order to grow the business further both organically and doing further MMA we need.
00:28:29.461 → 00:28:35.027Hey you know we need to complement the existing team with additional.
00:28:35.187 → 00:28:46.847So to say a very experienced team mates things God’s the proven to you know basically helping us on every of these dimensions and.
00:28:46.962 → 00:28:57.740And hence your computer right so we’re looking forward to grow the business and strong photo and make three years and you know also making it.
00:28:57.917 → 00:29:03.574Professionalizing the photo on every dimension lines be it peed on finding site,
00:29:03.652 → 00:29:11.703get that we believe that our product in Tech efforts you know as we integrate more companies things don’t get simpler right building that platform concept.
00:29:12.024 → 00:29:20.696Requires quite a lot of experience so you don’t get lost and we do believe that the space is in heavy need for.
00:29:20.864 → 00:29:34.451Innovation okay so hence we brought in people that also bring a lot of experience from companies such as Kana right and that has been quite interesting company innovating over.
00:29:34.602 → 00:29:43.769You know different over many years now in the fintech space right and we felt that it would help us a lot to sort of say.
00:29:44.315 → 00:29:49.386Potentially there also go further from where we are today in terms of how we look at the product.
00:29:49.527 → 00:29:59.226To expand also in other areas and we brought some other external into the company and definitely feel that this was much needed in this helping us a lot now
00:29:59.169 → 00:30:13.791over the next three years to hit so stay tuned excess Cerf if you want to call it in so far you’ve reached 20 plus markets I took from a website 400 million visits
00:30:13.698 → 00:30:25.251annually 11 plus million members and three million transactions a month this is pretty big but as you said you want to grow organically
00:30:25.167 → 00:30:30.968M are you also open for companies that currently are hit hard by Corona if they want to,
00:30:30.974 → 00:30:36.162shall themselves would you be open to a look at potential acquisitions.
00:30:36.564 → 00:30:44.804Yes so in general we’re very open to continue to buy and build strategy which means you know companies that are.
00:30:44.927 → 00:30:53.671Active in our space in the adjacent space are you know art so to say companies we would be happy to look into
00:30:53.596 → 00:31:01.278you know independently if they hit by Corona or if the general feel it’s a good moment to potentially take a next adventure
00:31:01.158 → 00:31:10.920I’m or look for you know a professional partner so you know in the past we’ve seen that different narratives why you know companies also want to00:31:10.791 → 00:31:18.239potentially engage with us in a cell or in a strategic Partnerships so yes absolutely right we’re more than.
00:31:18.371 → 00:31:26.611More than happy to have a look at companies that feel like they could add to our journey and what we could add to their Journey.
00:31:26.887 → 00:31:37.125Let us now change a little bit the perspective because we always talk about those savings through your platform you expand your plant but let us take a step back and
00:31:37.041 → 00:31:38.269take the few,
00:31:38.275 → 00:31:49.098off of potential Customer because we already heard the big names like Adidas Ikea and so on the big Corporation Partners like CNN en el país and so on
00:31:48.978 → 00:31:54.401what size does a merchant have to be in order to make sense
00:31:54.335 → 00:32:02.863to join you and what can they expect from a partnership with you guys yeah that’s a great question so
00:32:02.770 → 00:32:15.475in general you know it’s we don’t limit by definition person by size right I mean the way to think about it is we’re Performance Marketing Channel which means you only pay.
00:32:15.652 → 00:32:24.576If a transaction happens so you risk to work with those is incredibly low and depending on your specific problems that you want to achieve right a thing.
00:32:24.717 → 00:32:33.660The essence of what we always say is we really great and generating sales and driving conversions for our partners that’s that’s that was a bit are used P compared to other channels
00:32:33.513 → 00:32:40.042in terms of what they can expect like so no sighs pressure drop per say okay we always look at the partner,
00:32:40.102 → 00:32:43.715individually and you know you know I can tell you we have.
00:32:43.910 → 00:32:55.364On average if you take a country such as Germany France Spain right we partner up with up to 3,000 4,000 different appetizers or I’d so we cover quite a variety
00:32:55.343 → 00:33:02.170in terms of you know smaller sized companies as well as two very very big guys.
00:33:02.275 → 00:33:13.963In terms of what you expect onboarding on our platforms incredibly simple okay there’s not a lot of work to be done I think the course thing is to have a really good chat up from.
00:33:14.113 → 00:33:18.671What to expect in other words what problem do you want to solve
00:33:18.659 → 00:33:27.295and you know these can come from you know the classic ones that you know customers come and ask us for right it’s new customer generation
00:33:27.139 → 00:33:31.841is a reactivation of customers it’s about you know making sure that
00:33:31.694 → 00:33:40.429and we get some more conversion would you to cart abandonment rate all these kind of classical problems that you know I would say every e-commerce site.
00:33:40.697 → 00:33:50.431I worked on and then depending on where you stand you know you know we have different solutions for it across the product portfolio that we offer
00:33:50.320 → 00:33:57.408what to expect what we normally see is quite a big chunk depending on how we set it up what we can deliver.
00:33:57.603 → 00:34:02.269Is you know new customers is something we always obviously optimized for,
00:34:02.311 → 00:34:14.845but also we see normally the partners that work with us sketch you know up to 20 to 30% off basket uplifts because we try to optimize for campaigns in that direction but actually you know triggering cash bag.
00:34:14.950 → 00:34:23.343Add certain limits or same with coupon codes we can trigger a specific product categories your particular interests of to South and maybe you know,
00:34:23.430 → 00:34:26.458your current have an inventory and want to get rid of.
00:34:26.635 → 00:34:33.633Big Topic at the moment right if you think about it everybody that you’re forecasting on Venturi based on Corona times.
00:34:33.918 → 00:34:41.231And now in Commerce this year is far off from the corona peak times rights of consumer confidence has dropped quite a bit,
00:34:41.309 → 00:34:45.075so the lot of our current discussions appliances.
00:34:45.225 → 00:34:53.096How can we help to get that inventory option okay and hence also for example like Friday will play a massive role this year,
00:34:53.138 → 00:35:04.762I hear a lot from the e-commerce site from the merchant side from the brand side they have problems to get all the inventory but if they already secured it for Christmas
00:35:04.661 → 00:35:13.297you are the guys to talk to when they actually want to sell it I’m out of curiosity do you also see certain Peaks like
00:35:13.150 → 00:35:21.453Emerson make null up their own shopping holiday in summer like Prime days their Cyber Monday plaque Friday week
00:35:21.270 → 00:35:29.447also getting popular here in Germany and in Europe together and of course Christmas like like the biggest.
00:35:29.759 → 00:35:36.721Holiday the biggest commercial event that we have especially in Europe and do you see certain Peaks there.
00:35:36.871 → 00:35:40.538Absolutely so for us you know she for.
00:35:40.742 → 00:35:47.190Is by far the most important quarter of the year and exactly out of the reasons that you just said right there is.
00:35:47.404 → 00:35:52.547You know on one side like Friday that is by now a not only
00:35:52.472 → 00:36:05.843show us event I mean basically travel from the u.s. to Brazil a massive Topic in Brazil by now it’s big you know I would have never expected it but it’s big my nails and Germany and friends and you know all.
00:36:06.002 → 00:36:12.613Albrecht it advertises the pushing that then you have 11:11 let’s not forget about that particular when you think about you know.
00:36:12.736 → 00:36:20.337From Southeast Asia its signal stay right it’s the 11th of November and it’s single stay
00:36:20.190 → 00:36:29.249kind of version way gift other signals little bit I would say like Valentine’s Day as it is celebrated more in the US.
00:36:29.399 → 00:36:42.554Yes I would say it’s good and fair description right and it’s basically driven by Alibaba and look crazy crazy you know what happens on that day as well right so I think it’s fair to say you know Q4,
00:36:42.641 → 00:36:46.938his massive right it’s by far the biggest season peak.
00:36:47.080 → 00:36:53.150Summer period is normally been slower right so that’s that’s also very clear you know good weather.
00:36:53.381 → 00:37:06.284Some doesn’t help and then you literally can stay everything no Mother’s Day and you know all those Valentine’s days and all of those classical and they definitely also,
00:37:06.362 → 00:37:09.210from the war you know who can see them as well,
00:37:09.252 → 00:37:17.267hi CeCe solids very seasonal very Regional is also something we see in our podcasting as he said a good weather is
00:37:17.048 → 00:37:29.330not good for podcasts for internet radios that we grow usually very slow or not at all and then it really picks up end of September beginning of October and it gets really
00:37:29.282 → 00:37:37.234red burning hot between end of November and Christmas and then break complete break.
00:37:37.456 → 00:37:41.636Yes I would have had.
00:37:41.741 → 00:37:53.708A lot more questions but we recording for already more than 37 minutes which is more longer tied for our interview I just want to wrap it up with
00:37:53.705 → 00:38:02.990two additional questions number one now maybe three number one are you guys currently hiring yes we are.
00:38:03.275 → 00:38:15.260Some you know across across many roles you know we’re very flexible in terms of our working policy certain lot of remote working possible hyper working possible to absolutely.
00:38:15.392 → 00:38:24.082Look at our sites you know quiets particularly engineering roles as usual but also in across the fourth marketing editors,
00:38:24.151 → 00:38:37.450sorry that’s distant siren going off here and they testing it here really sorry about that and the second question all you guys are looking to add additional investors to your circle of investors.
00:38:38.159 → 00:38:41.555So look right now we’re you know we keep on being profitable
00:38:41.462 → 00:38:55.203um and that doesn’t mean that we are not you know giving also RMA Ambitions always on the lookout for you know so to say additional funding when it comes down to emanate so yes the answer is yes
00:38:55.128 → 00:38:59.010um but you know driven out of our buying build strategy.
00:38:59.179 → 00:39:08.013Great so only thing left for me to say everybody would like to learn more you can go down here in the show notes have a look at your LinkedIn profile
00:39:07.902 → 00:39:10.426at the company website
00:39:10.270 → 00:39:21.471and everybody who would like to learn more can reach out to us and we will have you back in the interview let’s say next year when we announce the next big acquisition.
00:39:30.480 → 00:39:36.560Music.
00:39:37.060 → 00:39:44.292Interviews at www.startrekphase2.de Kayo remember sharing is caring.
00:39:44.240 → 00:39:57.695Music.
Key Takeaways
The company raised in total M 79 US$ in funding since interception in 2012 up to Series D.
This article covers a significant development in the DACH startup and venture capital ecosystem.
The DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) continues to be one of Europe's most dynamic startup markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key facts about Meet Hidden Giant Shoppers Rewards:?
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
How does this affect the German startup ecosystem?
Global Savings Group (https://www.global-savings-group.com/) is not a fintech company, they are working in the affiliate marketing space. They call themself a lead generation company, including couponing pages.
What are the latest startup funding trends in the DACH region?
Startuprad.io tracks venture capital and startup funding across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Explore our pillar coverage pages for the latest data.
About the Host
Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.
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