Berlin, 1st November 2018 – 2018 marks the year of DN Capital Portfolio Day’s first edition in Berlin. Bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, limited partners and other stakeholders from the German venture capital ecosystem, the afternoon featured four plenary sessions and twelve portfolio company presentations, showcasing talent across the DN family.
DN Partners Nenad Marovac and Thomas Rubens started off proceedings by providing an overview of DN’s 2018 and a review of the market overall. DN started the year with a partial exit in one of our former Series-A companies, Auto1, to SoftBank, which valued the company at over $3 billion. 2018 also marked another milestone exit when in September DN finalized Apple’s acquisition of Shazam. Other notable raises included Lakestar investing in Hometogo, Bessemer in Parallel Wireless, and Naspers supporting Remitly (our US-based remittance company) in a $115 million round. In January, DN publicly announced our fourth fund which was oversubscribed at its hard cap of $235 million. And 2 months later Prequin ranked fund III as the best performing fund in Europe of the last decade.
On the portfolio side, some of DN’s most exciting companies shared their outlook on the problems they are solving, their views on the market and the factors driving their performance. Highlights of portfolio investments from previous funds included Hakan Koc from Auto1, Europe’s largest used-car marketplace, and Patrick Andrea from HomeToGo, the global metasearch brand for the vacation rental market, Christer Holloman from Divido, European market leader in POS finance and Nico Weiler from Caroobi, the vertically integrated marketplace for automotive services.
DN Capital was also proud to welcome on stage some of its most promising new investments such as JobandTalent, the first on-demand staffing agency that integrates the full process of selecting, hiring and managing within a mobile app; Tourlane, a booking platform for customized travel packages and Zivver, Europe’s leading secure communications platform.
Alongside Tourlane, the German ecosystem was well represented with Joblift, the modern meta-search platform for jobs, Windeln, the online shopping site based specializing in baby products, Pamono, the curated market place for vintage and contemporary design furniture and X24, the largest independent operator of online marketplaces for Home & Living products.
The event also featured renowned external speakers such as Christian Gartner, CFO of HelloFresh. Exactly one year ago to the day of HelloFresh’s IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, he shared with the audience his experience, comparing IPOs vs private super fundraising.
DN Capital was also proud to welcome on stage Latham & Watkins Partner Joshua Kiernan and Qatalyst Vice President Peter Spofforth for a fireside chat on M&A with Steve Schlenker, Managing Partner at DN Capital. On the recruitment side, Hannah Joyce and Thomas Green from Calibre One gave insightful advices on how start-ups can attract and retain the best talent.
On the tech side, AWS Senior Data Scientist Yotam Yarden spoke to the entrepreneurs in the room about seven things every start-up should know about Machine Learning, emphasizing the need to bring business and tech stakeholders together to decide on a clear roadmap.
With 100+ investments in Europe and the US, as well as a network of partners and investors grown over 18 years, the Portfolio Day was an excellent opportunity for the whole DN family and friends to gather together for the first time in Berlin. Here’s to many more!
